By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD — Education and educators are targeted in two bills that would prohibit the teaching of personal identity ideologies, critical race theory, LGBTQ+ ideologies and alleged Marxist derived educational theories in public schools.

Proponents said these ideologies and theories have been used to indoctrinate public school students, foster divisiveness and paint white Christian as an oppressive class.

The prime sponsor of House Bill 1792, Rep. Mike Belcher, R-Wakefield, said Monday the bill is named for Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist, who founded Turning Point USA, and was a father, a husband and a Christian.

“He was murdered. He was assassinated. He is a martyr for the faith,” Belcher said. The bill contains the things he was trying to stop, the indoctrination into hatred and the divisive critical theory that fueled his assassination and left-wing violence nationwide, Belcher asserted.

But opponents said passing the bills would have the state travel down the same expensive highway that led federal courts to find similar bills unconstitutional because they are overly vague and put teachers and schools at risk, while limiting the first amendment rights of both students and educators.

“Teachers are Masters-level professionals, and our schools are better off when state government isn’t trying to put words in teachers’ mouths – or censor their speech. Please oppose this, and instead spend some time fixing education funding from the state level,” wrote Amy Agostino of Londonderry.

Along with Belcher’s bill, the House Education Policy and Administration Committee also heard House Bill 1778, which would prohibit the use of personal identity ideology in public school instruction and policies.

In the bill “personal identity ideology” is defined as prioritizing personal identity characteristics over individual merit, including diversity, equity and inclusion, and including race, color, biological sex, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, or gender identity.

The prime sponsor of the bill, Rep. Melissa Litchfield, R-Brentwood, did not appear before the committee she sits on, but asked that the bill be retained, studied or killed.

A number of people opposed the bill all urging the committee to kill it.

James McKim, vice president of the Manchester regional chapter of the NAACP, said he travels all over the state to schools as a consultant and said there is no merit to the implication that students are being indoctrinated.

He said the bill is trying to solve a problem that does not exist.

Belcher, when he introduced his bill, alleged a long and sophisticated history beginning with Carl Marx and how his theories and ideologies have filtered down to the education system and fostered things like critical race theory, the oppressor and the oppressed models, LGBTQ+ ideologies, identity based ideologies and systemic inequity based on identity groups, or anti-constitutional narratives.

He claimed these ideologies undermine learning and unity, and the right of parents to direct their children’s upbringing.

He claimed these worldviews are responsible for the divisions in this country and have fostered the view that white Americans are inherently racists.

Belcher said for years conservatives have been assaulted and harassed on college campuses including in New Hampshire.

He said they have heard for years that conservative students fear to express their beliefs because they will be ostracized, punished academically and victims of violence to themselves and their property.

Belcher claimed his bill does not infringe on a teacher’s free speech, noting there is no right for a teacher to say what he wants to say to children who are held captive.

Teachers are bureaucrats, he said, and they must follow the policy set by the legislature.

Belcher’s bill would give students and parents the right to bring a civil action against a teacher or a school if they believe the law was violated with a fine of up to $10,000 and loss of a teacher’s license.

But nearly everyone else who spoke opposed the bill.

Mary Wilke, a retired public school teacher from Concord, said the bill slanders teachers.

She said she never heard the term critical race theory before several years ago, and noted the bill also singles out LGBTQ students.

“All students deserve to be treated with respect and dignity,” she said, “and not singled out as if there is something wrong.”

Wilke said she spent 20 years teaching, so much time, money and emotions trying to help every child in her class as so many other teachers continue to do today.

“It is heartbreaking to hear public school teachers addressed this way, slandered by the legislature,” Wilkins said. “And it is happening over and over again here.”

People who write bills like these ought to spend time in public schools and would see that public school teachers are the most compassionate people, she said.

Robert Wallace, a retired software developer, whose father was a school principal and teacher, said he knows a lot about teachers.

“The reality is they just want to teach the right stuff 99 percent of the time,” he said. “I’m not sure why the legislature feels the need to get involved,”

Educators are professionals who are more educated and experienced and know how to teach children, Wallace said.

If someone has a problem, they should go to the local level to the school board, he said, because you don’t need the legislature micromanaging education.

He said the most divisive thing he heard recently was from the chair of this committee (Kristin Noble, who was absent Monday) saying Democrats and Republicans should be segregated and taught separately.

“This isn’t your job,” Wallace said. “You have a job to do. Do your job.”

“I’m just glad Rep. Belcher didn’t ask us to get down on our knees and say a prayer,” he added.

Nancy Brennan of Weare, said Charlie Kirk was idolized on the right, but he also sought to turn education into a right wing institution and muzzle teachers, erase identities and present an altered view of history.

The bill goes along with what the current administration is trying to do, which is “erase the story of our diversity,” Brennan said. “Only the white straight men in our history should be honored or remembered.”

Deb Howes, president of the American Federation of Teachers, also opposed the bill saying it would censor core academic content.

She said the bill is like other laws passed by the legislature that the federal court turned down because they are overly vague. “There is no bright line,” she said, for teachers in the middle of a lesson who are asked a question that might lead into something the law forbids.

“They have to say ‘stop, I can’t talk about that with you, we might violate the law,’” Howes said. “That is not good education.. . Where is that bright line?”

She said the bill also violates the state’s constitutional duty to cherish education, because it narrows what students can learn.

“You are setting yourselves up for more legal challenges and more and more diversion of funds,” Howes said, “that should be going into strengthening public schools for students.”

Assistant Attorney General Sean Locke said the bill creates a Catch 22 for schools who are required to provide a safe learning environment, and need to address student to student behavior if there is bullying or harassment.

Schools would be liable if they failed to address student behavior, yet the action they take to do that could be seen under the bill as discrimination and they could be liable for that as well, he said.

This bill would take the tools away from schools that they need to address student-to-student behaviors, Locke said.

The committee did not take any immediate action on either bill.

Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.