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Teachers could face $5,000 fine for saying wrong thing - YouTube
Channel: 12 News
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we start with what supporters label the
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unbiased teaching
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act it carries five thousand dollar
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penalties for teachers
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school districts and charter schools if
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they handle the subject of race in the
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wrong way
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or present what the bill defines as
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controversial issues
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without sharing all viewpoints the
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legislation was unveiled and passed by
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the state house of representatives last
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week in a matter of hours
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the bill could come to a final vote in
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the senate as soon as this coming week
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joining us is the sponsor republican
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state representative
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michelle udall of mesa she's also chair
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of the house education committee welcome
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to square off
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thank you it's great to be here so uh
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the question i like to ask
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about most bills is what is the problem
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you're trying to fix here
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the problem that we're hearing from a
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lot of parents and have been hearing
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from some time
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is that there are a handful of teachers
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and it's not all teachers
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it's not a ton of teachers but it is
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happening
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around the state that are teaching
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things in a very biased way
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instead of teaching students how to
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think they're teaching them what to
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think
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and many times very biased political
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leanings
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one way or the other it actually happens
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on both sides of the aisle
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unfortunately and that's just not
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appropriate in the classroom
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and we're also hearing a lot about um
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things like critical race theory project
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1619
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things like that in the classroom that
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parents really object to
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and don't feel is appropriate in the
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classroom can you
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name a specific school or school
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district where
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the 1619 project something created by
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the new york times a few years ago
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or what's called critical race theory uh
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is actually being taught yeah this there
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was some news
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recently i think it was i don't want to
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say the wrong district i think it was
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alhambra was teaching the
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1619 project and
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very publicly you know it there was
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quite a bit of controversy of it
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i know that cusd has taught critical
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race theory and continues to
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chandler university school district in
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some of their teacher trainings
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let's talk about another piece of the
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bill which is uh which is very
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interesting
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um limits on classroom discussions on
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what the bill defines
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as controversial issues that's a
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specific term used in the bill
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controversial issues
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here's some language when discussing
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controversial issues
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teachers have to present diverse
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perspectives without giving preference
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to
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any one perspective controversial issues
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do not include
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accurate portrayals of historical events
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so
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if one thing to get back to is if
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teachers do any of this wrong schools do
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anything that's wrong
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the attorney general might investigate
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and they might be fined five thousand
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dollars so
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can you talk to all the social studies
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and history teachers out there right now
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and tell them
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how they can present all perspectives
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equally
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in discussions about slavery the
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holocaust
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the us government's treatment of native
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americans
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without breaking the law and getting hit
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with a five thousand dollar fine
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absolutely couple things first of all
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it's knowingly
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breaking the statute that puts you in
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jeopardy so if you are knowingly
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breaking this
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statute if you're intentionally teaching
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in a biased way
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that's where you would be in jeopardy of
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facing the fight who does
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who decides whether a teacher is
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intentionally teaching in a biased way
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well i think in general the way that
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that works out in the ag's office
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or the county attorneys is first you
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have
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a situation where teacher teaches this
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way and then it's addressed
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it's addressed at the teacher level it's
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addressed at the school level
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and if you have a teacher that continues
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teaching that way after they've been
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told
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you know this is a really biased way of
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teaching let's try and even things out a
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little bit
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if they continue to intentionally do
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that then that's where
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they will find themselves in jeopardy of
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facing that fine but getting back to the
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the question i ask how can they present
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all perspectives equally when it comes
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to the holocaust
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so again accurate portrayals of
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historical events are not considered
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controversial and so there would be no
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need to teach that from diverse
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perspectives
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if you're teaching history and making an
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effort to teach it accurately and to
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teach it honestly
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the holocaust should not be taught from
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two perspectives there's not a good side
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to the holocaust there's not a good side
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to slavery
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that's why that sentence is in there
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that accurate portrayals of historical
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events are not
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included in this controversy okay but
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then there are a whole bunch of
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other controversial issues that aren't
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named
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in there so can you now speak to those
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same teachers again and tell them
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which controversial issues they should
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treat very carefully
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i think any controversial issue that's
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not a historical event
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you know it lists three different types
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of things that are not considered
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controversial
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issues historical events abuse
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reporting and recognizing abuse and sex
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education we deal with those in other
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statutes
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that seems to me you're on a really
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slippery slope here
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has anybody told this bill was
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introduced at the last minute
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it's had no public debate
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and won't have any public debate if it's
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passed by the senate because it's going
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straight to the senate
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why did that happen well the language
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came
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once it was passed the introduction date
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on bills so the language
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uh this is something that has concerned
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a lot of people for a long
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time a lot of time and however we saw
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this language in a bill
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uh in another state um and really
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appreciated the language and felt like
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that this is language that we could
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craft edit and craft as arizona statute
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and so
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that's why it happened in the timing it
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did um just because it happened after
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the bill introduction
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deadlines has has anybody told you this
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bill might be con of any of the house
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lawyers told you this bill might be
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unconstitutional no
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note have they reviewed this bill yes
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they have they have and they say it's
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constitutional
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yes you're sure about that yes
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okay governor doug ducey rarely comments
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about bills that haven't reached his
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desk
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here's what he told reporters late last
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week about this legislation please
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please listen to this clip we're going
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to play here it is
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we don't want to be punishing or
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punitive with teachers we want to be
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rewarding our teachers but we also want
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to make sure that we're having the
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proper lessons learned and taught inside
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our classroom
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were you able to catch that entire sound
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bite yes i was
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i think as you know the governor rarely
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comments on legislation
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he clearly thinks a five thousand dollar
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fine is going too far
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it's unclear what he thinks about the
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rest of the bill have you been told by
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the governor's office that he won't sign
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this bill
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i have not but that's a pretty strong
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message he just sent there isn't it
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well remember that the fine is if you
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knowingly and intentionally continue
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doing this
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and frankly fines like this are rarely
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used
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it's really if you have no enforcement
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mechanism
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then what is the what is the way that
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you keep teachers
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but the teachers accountable why is the
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state
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getting into the business of defining
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what a controversial issue
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is or isn't because our children deserve
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a classroom where they can feel
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respected
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where different views are handled in a
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balanced manner
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they deserve not to be in a classroom
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where propaganda
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is the rule of the day where's
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propaganda the rule of the day
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in arizona unfortunately in
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a handful of classrooms it is so we need
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a bill defining all this where the state
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steps in to define
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controversial issues and how you can
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treat race because of
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a handful of classrooms is that right
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sorry just a second um absolutely
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any time that we are pushing a teacher's
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ideas onto a student
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a teacher's controversial beliefs onto a
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student
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any time that we are teaching a student
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that they should
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judge others based on the color of their
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skin that needs to stop if you're using
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public resources
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if you're using classroom time to do
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those things
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that is a misuse of public funds that's
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a misuse of the public trust that is
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given to teachers as parents
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we send our kids into t into classrooms
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and we trust teachers with most of our
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children's day
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we trust them to guide and direct our
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children
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and there's a huge amount of trust that
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needs to be there and we need to trust
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that teachers are doing their absolute
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best
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to ensure that children are learning in
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an unbiased and in a fair manner
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all right state representative michelle
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udall thank you so much for joining us
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thank you
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