A teachers union in Tennessee is suing the state over a law that was passed nearly two years ago which prohibits the instruction of certain concepts related to race, gender, and other subjects in public and charter schools.
The Tennessee Education Association (TEA) announced in a statement that it filed a lawsuit against the Tennessee Commissioner of Education and members of the State Board of Education to challenge the constitutionality of the legislation—known as the prohibited concepts law—preventing public school educators from teaching certain topics such as race, gender, and political systems.
The 52-page lawsuit filed on July 26 not only calls into question the “unconstitutionally vague language” of the measure, but also argues that the law interferes with teachers’ instruction by limiting the educational quality of students.
“There is no group of individuals more passionate and committed to ensuring Tennessee students receive a high-quality education than public school educators,” Knox County Educator and Tennessee Education Association President Tanya Coats said. “This law interferes with Tennessee teachers’ job to provide a fact-based, well-rounded education to their students.”
The lawsuit is asking the court to issue a permanent injunction against the state’s enforcement of the law and declare it unconstitutional for violating the 14th Amendment.
“Laws need to be clear,” Ms. Coats said. “The prohibited concepts law conflicts with the state’s own academic standards and curriculum, which creates unfair risks to Tennessee teachers using state approved materials, following state standards, and providing fact-based instruction,” Coats said. “Educators have already spent countless hours trying to understand and navigate the law’s unclear requirements.”
“Tennessee students will fall behind their peers in other states if this law stays on the books,” she concluded. “We are already seeing school leaders make changes to instruction and school activities due to the risk of losing state funding, facing unfair repercussions or threats to their professional standing.”
A spokesperson for Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, which represents both state entities, said the office has not yet received a copy of the lawsuit and could not comment.
Prohibited Concepts
According to the legislation, teachers are prevented from using supplemental materials that include or promote concepts such as one race or sex being inherently superior to another race or sex; an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, being inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously; or individuals being discriminated against or receiving adverse treatment because of their race or sex.
The law, however, does still permit schools to teach the history of an ethnic group, have an impartial discussion of controversial aspects of history; or impartially teach about the historical oppression of a particular group of people based on race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion, or geographic region.
Penalties for a transgression are steep, requiring that the commissioner of education withhold state funds—in an amount determined by the commissioner—from a public school that “knowingly violated” the law.
Most of Tennessee’s GOP-dominated statehouse supported the legislation that was signed into law by Republican Gov. Bill Lee in May 2021. Sponsors of the bill argued that the measure was needed to protect young minds from being indoctrinated with certain social concepts.
Primarily, lawmakers objected to any teachings on critical race theory—a term redefining America’s history by claiming that the nation was built through the struggle between “oppressors” (white people) and the “oppressed” (everybody else), similar to Marxism’s reduction of human history to a struggle between the “bourgeoisie” and the “proletariat.”
Critical race theory has been heavily promulgated throughout academia, entertainment, government, schools, and corporations in recent years and rose to new prominence following activism triggered by a police-involved death in 2020.
Epoch Times reporter Janita Kan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
