Divided NC board OKs new social studies documents. But where’s Sandra Day O’Connor?
A divided State Board of Education approved new documents Thursday to help teach new social studies standards, despite concerns from some Republican members including that the documents don’t list former U.S. Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
She was the first female justice on the Supreme Court.
The state board voted 7-3 for the new guidance documents, which include a glossary of terms for social studies teachers and “unpacking documents” that suggest how elementary school teachers will use the new standards.
GOP board members questioned how the documents were developed, including the omission of O’Connor from a list of women who have contributed to change in U.S. history.
State Superintendent Catherine Truitt, a Republican, said the list in the 5th-grade document wasn’t meant to be exhaustive and that teachers can use their own examples. The list includes people such as former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, abolitionist Sojourner Truth and suffragette Susan B. Anthony.
But GOP board member Olivia Oxendine said O’Connor should have been included. Oxendine had other questions about the 5th-grade documents, including how she didn’t feel they talk enough about the rights of disabled veterans.
Democratic board member J. Wendell Hall also said he agreed that O’Connor should have been listed. But he voted for the new documents, unlike GOP board members Oxendine, Todd Chasteen and Amy White.
Two Republican board members — Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and State Treasurer Dale Folwell — were not at Thursday’s meeting. They had voted in February against the new standards.
The documents approved Thursday do not include new language suggested by White that would have said that the United States is a “great nation.”
Will standards be delayed?
Teachers are supposed to begin teaching the new standards as early as July for the 2021-22 school year. But that could change.
Last week, the state House rewrote a COVID-19 school relief bill to include new language that would delay the social studies standards to the 2022-23 school year. GOP lawmakers said the delay would give the state more time to finish the documents and train teachers, but Democrats said the delay would disrupt already approved high school schedules for this fall.
State board chairman Eric Davis said Thursday that they’re not requesting the delay.
The state Senate rejected the House’s changes to the bill on Monday. A committee of lawmakers will try to work out differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill.
Standards are controversial
The new social studies have been a source of controversy even before their adoption in February in a split 7-5 vote by the board’s Democratic majority. The standards call for including the perspectives of historically marginalized groups.
Critics accused the social studies standards of incorporating “Critical Race Theory,” a “scholarly framework that describes how race, class, gender, and sexuality organize American life,” according to the UNC-Chapel Hill history department. This view holds that systemic racism has been and continues to be a part of the nation’s history.
Critics call it Marxist, anti-American, racist and destructive. Concerns about Critical Race Theory led state Republican House lawmakers to pass a bill last month that puts new rules on how schools teach about race and history, including not promoting teaching that would make students feel guilt or discomfort due to their race or sex.
Concerns about Critical Race Theory accounted for 88% of the public comments to the state’s plan to use $1.2 billion in federal COVID-19 relief for schools. The Department of Public Instruction said Critical Race Theory isn’t part of the plan but that many people cited it to argue the state should reject the federal funds.
