By Jim Sabataso
RUTLAND HERALD
A House bill aims to create standards for teaching anti-racism in Vermont K-12 schools.
The bill, H.584, proposes to “create an anti-racism certification program for schools that recognize fully the history, contributions and perspectives of ethnic groups and social groups.”
Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun, D-Westminster, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said the bill grew out of a class she taught at the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont Global Issues and Youth Action program last summer in which students learned how the legislative process works. As part of the class, students developed legislation on issues they were passionate about, which included an early draft of H.584.
Bos-Lun, a history teacher who grew up in Taiwan and attended college in China, said the proposed bill resonated with her personally.
“My whole life, since I was a teenager, has been about learning about other people (and) trying to understand and move together through difference,” she said.
Following the Governor’s Institutes session, Bos-Lun spent several months working on the bill with students from the Vermont Student Anti-Racism Network, helping them fine-tune the legislation she would ultimately introduce to the House of Representatives.
“This bill was developed by students from all over the state who have grown up in Vermont schools and, for the most part, feel really unsatisfied with what they learned about racial issues,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of wisdom in listening to student voices.”
Along the way, Bos-Lun and the network met with members of the Ethnic and Social Equity Standards Working Group created by Act 1 of 2019.
She said the ideas put forth in the bill are compatible with the goals of that group.
The bill lists six standards schools would need to meet in order to obtain anti-racist certification.
They include:
— Developing guidelines for addressing racist incidents with the goal of creating educational opportunities for offenders.
— Increasing access to “age-appropriate” literature that addresses systemic racism and features BIPOC authors.
— Developing and implementing lesson plans consistent with the goals of Act 1.
— Supporting student-led advocacy groups.
— Providing anti-bias and anti-racist professional development for teachers.
— Conducting a biannual survey “addressing student understanding of and experience with racism.“
The goal was to try to find a way to make really clear, simple steps that schools could adopt,” said Bos-Lun.
She added that all six standards are equally vital.
“Each of the standards is important because, if schools embrace them, they can lead to environments that support wider understanding of the history of our state, our world and our people and the challenges that still exist,” she said. “We need to provide a comprehensive learning opportunity for all our students and teachers to better understand and thrive in our diverse world and for those who have often been marginalized, to be fully included and supported.”
Bos-Lun acknowledged the proposed legislation may attract critics, noting push back, both nationally and locally, against efforts to implement diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in schools — efforts often incorrectly conflated with critical race theory, which is not taught in Vermont K-12 schools.
She said the ideas in the bill aren’t intended to be divisive; rather, they are meant to “promote understanding.”
“I think a lot of it is about how we frame what we want people to do,” she said. “The goal of a program like this … it’s not to try and make sure everyone thinks the same. We don’t want everyone to think the same. But we do want everyone to respect each other.”
She added, “I think it is extremely important that we have a comprehensive understanding of the people in our world and what our history has been. So that involves looking at our history from multiple perspectives.”
Addie Lentzner, a senior at Arlington Memorial High School and member of the Vermont Student Anti-Racism Network, said the H.584 addresses a timely issue that is on a lot of students’ minds.
“It would, hopefully, make a big difference,” she said.
Nonetheless, Lentzner is realistic about the bill’s prospects during this busy legislative session.
To date, the bill has not seen any activity since it was referred to the House Education Committee in January.
“We’re hoping that if the bill doesn’t get passed this year, we can still implement it in a different way — maybe by going through the Board of Education or the Act 1 Working Group,” she said. “So we’re trying to still approach it from different angles.”
Bos-Lun agreed.
“I think there are a lot of people who want to move Vermont to a better place in terms of being accepting and inclusive of all people and acknowledging where we haven’t done so well in the past. And so that’s what this bill is about,” she said.
jim.sabataso @rutlandherald.com
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