Key Findings

1. In October 2021, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) lowered the quality of Washington’s academic learning standards by including harmful civics misinformation.

2. HB 1807 would rebuild the quality of civics education provided to Washington’s students.

3. HB 1807’s outline of the founding documents and influential articles that students should study would provide a full and accurate account of the nation’s history.

4. The bill would provide that teachers address controversial subjects in an even-handed, objective and impartial way.

5. HB 1807 would help reassure parents and the broader community that race discrimination is not being taught in the schools and that the state’s learning standards and curricula are not mandating the politicization of classrooms.

6. HB 1807 would promote the return of open and free discussion of current issues in the classroom without fear of job loss or social cancellation.

7. The bill would strengthen democracy by promoting positive civic engagement in the classroom and in broader society.

8. HB 1807 would help prepare students to become full participants as citizens and voters in a responsible, self-governing community.

9. The bill would remove mandates on school employees attending racial discrimination and race-identity courses.

Introduction

Last May, the state legislature passed and the governor signed SB 5044, which mandated the training of school employees and school board directors in diversity and equity courses based on the critical theory approach of race essentialism and race-based discrimination.

A few months later, in October 2021, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction published the Ethnic Studies Framework. This Framework lowered the academic learning standards in civics and Social Studies in public schools by introducing race-based policies and other racialized concepts into the academic standards. The Framework also lowered academic learning standards in Art, English Language Arts, Environmental and Sustainability Education, Computer Science, and Health.

This new approach re-organized academic topics into four domains of “Identity,” “Power and Oppression,” “History of Resistance and Liberation,” and “Reflection and Action.” For example, the U.S. History Ethnic Studies standards includes: “Power and oppression, as defined by ethnic studies, are the ways in which the United States government was founded on racist intellectual premises and economic practices that institutionalized oppression of people of color that continues to the present day.”

These standards also teach socialist principles to put the U.S. in a negative light:

“Understand how the rise of industrial capitalism intersects with labor (of all ethnicities) exploitation and oppression.”

They also teach a slanted politicized view of Europeans and U.S. History:

“Understand that Europeans brought the dominant worldview values of ‘Guns, the bible, private property and social hierarchy, and racial supremacy” (William Katz) that have driven U.S. history.’”

The new race-based Ethnic Studies policy encourages students to take “Action” in political causes. For example, “What actions can students take now in the struggle toward a social justice cause?”

In response to weakening educational and civics standards in public schools, Rep. Walsh (R-Longview) has introduced HB 1807, to improve the quality of civics education in Washington public schools.

Click here to read the Legislative Memo in full.