TEACHING THE TRUTH IN HISTORY AND ENDING CENSORSHIP TO ENSURE THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS
WHEREAS, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) has long sought to confront and eliminate societal and institutional prejudices undermining the advancement of African Americans, and urged that we teach the full context of American history;
WHEREAS, NBCSL has a long history of passing resolutions to encourage training and cultural development in the United States, including Resolutions CYF-20-34 A RESOLUTION ON ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES, EDU-18-12 A RESOLUTION ON MINORITY MALE TEACHER RECRUITMENT, YTH-14-01 A RESOLUTION DECLARING YOUTH VIOLENCE AS A PUBLIC HEALTH EPIDEMIC AND SUPPORTING STATEWIDE TRAUMA-INFORMED EDUCATION, HHS-14-28 A RESOLUTION ON ELIMINATING HEALTH DISPARITIES, and EDU-13-34 FACILITATING SAFE AND SUPPORTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS;
WHEREAS, there are efforts to censor certain topics of educational history related to race in our schools;
WHEREAS, teachers should be all are trained to provide an appropriate educational experience including discussions around race, numerous events in American History such as slavery, the civil rights movement, and native American genocide that are crucial parts of our collective history;
WHEREAS, censoring the discussions that students have about culture, race, and history would be detrimental to all students, as school should be preparing them for the diverse environment that they must be prepared to meet challenges and opportunities find themselves in after they graduate;
WHEREAS, students in school now will compete on a global scale, making it more vital for them to attend classes that will prepare them to engage various cultures and appreciate our history and contributions, and to be educated about various cultures and history, and without such education they will struggle to move forward in a global and multicultural environment that they will find themselves in;
WHEREAS, discussions of race and the history of racism is critical to education of American students, and discussions of race have existed as an academic and legal construct in America’s higher education institutions for more than four decades and has contributed to our understandings and solutions to our societal challenges;
WHEREAS, it is beneficial to identify, analyze, and explain institutional racism in modern American society with a goal of counteracting its effects and providing important context to students;
WHEREAS, educational constructs including that referred to as Critical Race Theory, enables a means of understanding challenges that Americans face with regards to disparities and trauma caused by generations of race-based violence, while forming a united front against the unacceptable and continuing impact of systemic racism, and is critical to the education of American students;
WHEREAS, an orchestrated disinformation campaign driven by divisive organizations have elevated Critical Race Theory to the national media, has mischaracterized and rebranded the educational construct known as CRT as a means of advancing their objective of censoring the academic study of race in our schools;
WHEREAS, according to the latest Race in America report from the Pew Research Center, 58% of Americans believe race relations in the US are in poor state;
WHEREAS, Civics knowledge and skills enable individuals to participate in a democracy and navigate civic remedies when rights have been infringed upon;
WHEREAS, this year, more than twenty-one states have introduced legislation aimed at banning discussion on race in public schools or withholding funding from institutions who include Critical Race Theory it its curricula, with fundamental misunderstandings of how these issues are taught in our schools and the impacts these laws would have; and
WHEREAS, by banning discussions of race in America’s public schools, these states further perpetuate systemic racism and slow the healing and reform needed to combat centuries of racial injustices and are antithetical to a learning environment.
THERFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) will advocate for the legislative defense of teachers to educate our students, and thus inform our society, as it relates to discussions about race and its historical and current impact, using an age-appropriate methodology for which they are trained in our American public education system;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NBCSL will send a signed letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, the members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and the members of the House Committee on Education and Labor, addressing NBCSL commitment and benefits of to ensuring American children are provided an accurate and untampered education of our nation’s history;
BE IT FURTHER, that NBCSL recommends that our educators should be fully trained in areas of cultural competency and resources should be allocated to ensure this training;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NBCSL promotes civics education lessons on how to participate in the democratic process and civic remedies when such rights are infringed upon should be included for K-8, as well as types of lessons that are appropriate for grades 9-12, and will utilize our Education Policy Committee and the Children, Youth, and FAMILY SERVICES Policy Committee to review State Social Studies Standards applicable to Civics Education; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, members of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, and other federal, state, and local government officials, school boards and agencies as appropriate.
- SPONSOR: Senator Raumesh Akbari (TN) and Senator Brenda Gilmore (TN)
- Committee of Jurisdiction: Education (EDU) Policy Committee
- Ratified in Plenary Session: December 2, 2021
- Ratification certified by: Representative Billy Mitchell (GA), NBCSL President
ESTABLISHMENT OF HIGHER-ED PRISON TASK FORCE
WHEREAS, The National Black Caucus of State Legislators has long held that the benefits of higher education programming (HEP)to committed persons and to society are well-documented;
WHEREAS, there is clear and documented interest among persons committed in the respective state departments of corrections to participate in higher education opportunities during their incarceration;
WHEREAS, there is clear and documented interest among public and private not-for-profit colleges and universities to offer a range of higher education programming (e.g., credit-bearing, non-credit bearing, upper- division, lower-division, graduate studies) focused on different content areas (e.g., arts, liberal arts, technology, humanities, business, public policy, and social services) in the state prisons;
WHEREAS, Public and private not-for-profit universities and colleges have primary expertise in running higher education at conventional campuses, in-person, and via correspondence;
WHEREAS, Public and private not-for-profit universities and colleges have established Higher Education in Prison (HEP) programs and are guided by best practices; and
WHEREAS, A diversity of higher education programs run by public and private not-for-profit institutions will best respond to the needs and interests of the diverse population of persons committed in prisons.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) recognizes the importance of providing opportunity for all incarcerated, and urges our states to create Higher Education in Prison Task Force whose purpose is the following:
- To obtain and analyze existing data on HEP;
- To identify data points to allow for meaningful, statewide evaluation of HEP;
- To assess barriers and opportunities to HEP, including barriers and opportunities to continuing higher education upon release; and
- To recommend a legislative action plan to expand access to HEP;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that department of corrections are urged to train its correctional officers and other personnel on the values of HEP;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that universities and colleges will be in charge of admissions, program design, academic content, and implementation of their respective programs;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the state departments of corrections are urged to enact and implement internal policies that support HEP programs’ efficient operation and their growth and that support incarcerated students;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that state department of corrections are urged to encourage all eligible committed persons to apply for higher education programming, without restriction as to offense, sentence length, or remaining time to be served; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, members of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, and other federal and state government officials and agencies as appropriate.
- SPONSOR: Representative Carol Ammons (IL)
- Committee of Jurisdiction: Education (EDU) Policy Committee
- Ratified in Plenary Session: December 2, 2021
- Ratification certified by: Representative Billy Mitchell (GA), NBCSL President
PROVIDING EQUITABLE ACCESS TO COMPUTER SCIENCE PROGRAMS
WHEREAS, The National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) has historically promoted
increasing participation and representation of African Americans in technology, engineering, and other technical professions;
WHEREAS, students’ access to a foundational computer science education is an issue of both equity and economic opportunity;
WHEREAS, computing occupations are among the highest wage and highest demand occupations;
WHEREAS, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, STEM occupations are projected to grow over two times faster than all other occupations over the next decade and computer occupations are projected to grow three times faster, resulting in more than half a million new computer jobs;
WHEREAS, the percentage of Black employees at major technology companies is consistently in the low single digits and Black workers account for 7 percent of workers in computer occupations and 9 percent of computer science majors were black in 2019;
WHEREAS, while funding to Black entrepreneurs quadrupled from 2020 to 2021, Black startup founders received only 1.2 percent of the venture capital invested in U.S. startups in the first half of 2021 according to Forbes;
WHEREAS, learning computer science is not just for students who want to be programmers or engineers; studying computer science helps build critical thinking skills, computational thinking and problem solving, so that regardless of what college or career path a student chooses, they have developed lifelong skills to help them in academic and work life;
WHEREAS, in 2022, we want our students to be not merely consumers of technology, but creators of it;
WHEREAS, the number of Black students taking an AP computer science exam has increased every year since 2014, from 1,469 in 2014 to 9,080 in 2020;
WHEREAS, Black students are still less likely to attend a school that offers a computer science course and are less likely to enroll in a class even when it is available to them;
WHEREAS, only 48 percent of public high schools offer at least one computer science class, Black/African-American students are 1.2 times less likely than their white and Asian peers to attend a school that offers AP Computer science and 2.8 times less likely to take an AP CS exam when they attend a school that offers it; and
WHEREAS, NBCSL legislators have championed or supported legislation to create more equitable access to computer science education for historically underrepresented students in several states.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that NBCSL calls on state governments to adopt policies requiring every public high school offer at least one foundational computer science course and provide the resources and incentives to expand beyond one class;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that NBCSL calls on federal, state, and local governments to fund computer science professional learning programs for teachers in grades K-12 and recommends providing incentives to teachers serving in schools with higher-than-average rates of students eligible for free and reduced priced meals, as well as schools serving higher than average populations of students who have been historically excluded from computing fields; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, members of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, and other federal and state government officials and agencies as appropriate.
- SPONSOR: Senator Raumesh Akbari (TN)
- Committee of Jurisdiction: Education (EDU) Policy Committee
- Ratified in Plenary Session: December 2, 2021
- Ratification certified by: Representative Billy Mitchell (GA), NBCSL President