In recent days, there's been a flurry of articles by cons seeking to set some guardrails on how states go about banning "CRT" and related books. They support the bans in principle, but for strategic reasons, worry that they might be going too far.
They are right to be worried.
E.g. Max Eden dismisses leftwing critics of these bills as witless hysterics, but then concedes that Tennessee's law, which bans the *inclusion* of certain concepts, might be a smidge of an over-reaction.
aei.org/research-produ…
He can add Oklahoma's to that list too, since it has the exact same defect. Also ND's, which was signed into law last month. Maybe not such witless hysterics after all.
If only someone had tried to warn them way back in June that this might be a problem!
arcdigital.media/p/laws-aimed-a…
Of course, it didn't help that Chris Rufo was flat out lying about these bills in places like WSJ. But never fear. I'm sure we can trust him going forward.
wsj.com/articles/battl…
All of this does raise the question of why, when victory is finally in sight, folks like Kurtz and Eden are suddenly raising some gentle objections about what these bills do or how they do it. It's simple: They know what's coming, and they know how crazy it is going to be.
For instance, I wrote about a new bill out of South Carolina this week for @PENamerica. It has to be seen to be believed, but here's a taste.
pen.org/scope-speed-ed…
@PENamerica Or look at this bill prefiled in Missouri last week. It forbids K-12 schools from assigning any material that teaches the following.
Does "institutions" here include slavery? What does this bit about "income" mean for assigning Dorothy Day or Steinbeck?
legiscan.com/MO/text/HB1634…
@PENamerica Oh, and it applies to higher ed too. Public and private.
@PENamerica A new bill in Oklahoma (also prefiled last week) explicitly *requires* teachers and university professors to lie to their students about American history. I'm not making this up!
webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2021-22…
@PENamerica This is clearly crazy, but that's just it. There's no getting off the crazy train once it's in motion. Not without making things politically painful for the legislators at the control switch, which is something Kurtz, Eden, and the rest are neither able nor willing to do.
@PENamerica And so we should expect more. A lot more. Hell, a New York assemblyman just introduced one yesterday. It's less insane than the bills above, but contains that exact same "inclusion" problem Eden ever so gently cautions against. Max, caution harder!
nysenate.gov/legislation/bi…
@PENamerica This brings to a grand total of THIRTY-FOUR bills either introduced or prefiled for the next leg. session. Something will probably pass in Wisconsin and Ohio soon, and Florida won't be far behind. PEN has an up-to-date Index of all these bills here.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
@PENamerica Journalists, pay attention to what's happening. It is, unfortunately, poised to get much, much worse. And probably the only way to push back against it is to highlight just how outrageous some of these bills really are.
@PENamerica For more on new bills, trends and analysis, that sort of thing, be sure to check back at @PENamerica. I'll be providing monthly round-ups like this one for all things anti-CRT. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll run out of new things to say.
pen.org/scope-speed-ed…
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