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First In Nation: Idaho’s Republican Gov. Signs Bill Banning Critical Race Theory

   DailyWire.com
US Vice President President Mike Pence(L) listens as Idaho Governor Brad Little(R-ID) speaks at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 16, 2020, during an event on Rolling Back Regulations to Help All Americans on the South Lawn at the White House on July 16, 2020 in Washington,DC.
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Republican Idaho Governor Brad Little signed a bill late Wednesday night banning critical race theory from the state’s schools.

“VICTORY: Idaho becomes the first state in the nation to ban critical race theory indoctrination in public schools,” reported Christopher F. Rufo. “Governor Brad Little signed the bill into law, which will prohibit schools from promoting race essentialism, collective guilt, and neo-segregation. A historic win!”

The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Carl Crabtree, “prevents educators from making students ‘affirm, adopt or adhere to’ belief systems that claim individuals of any race, sex, ethnicity, religion or national origin are responsible for past actions done by members of the same group,” reported The North Platte Telegraph. It also prohibits educators “from forcing students onto belief systems that claim a group of people as defined by sex, race, ethnicity or religion are inferior or superior to others.”

The legislation, in part, states:

No public institution of higher education, school district, or public school, including a public charter school, shall direct or otherwise compel students to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to any of the following tenets: That any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior; That individuals should be adversely treated on the basis of their sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin; or that individuals, by virtue of sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin, are inherently responsible for actions committed in the past by other members of the same sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin.

No distinction or classification of students shall be made on account of race or color.  No course of instruction or unit of study directing or otherwise compelling students to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to any of the tenets identified in paragraph (a) of this subsection shall be used or introduced in any institution of higher education, any school district, or any public school, including a public charter school.

Calling the bill a “preventative measure,” Crabtree said, “It does not indicate that we have a rampant problem in Idaho. But we don’t want to get one.”

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), during his rebuttal speech to President Joe Biden’s address to Congress on Wednesday, spoke out against critical race theory.

“Today, kids are being taught that the color of their skin defines them again — and if they look a certain way, they’re an oppressor,” Scott told the nation. “From colleges to corporations to our culture, people are making money and gaining power by pretending we haven’t made any progress at all, by doubling down on the divisions we’ve worked so hard to heal.”

“You know this stuff is wrong,” the Republican asserted. “Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country. It’s backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination. And it’s wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.”

Related: Idaho Becomes Fourth State To Ban ‘Vaccine Passports’

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