INDIANAPOLIS- Today, the Senate Education and Career Development Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 167. Ranking Minority Member Senator JD Ford (D-Indianapolis) released the following statement. 

 

“Senate Bill 167 seems to be a solution looking for a problem. As Governor Holcomb and the Indiana Department of Education have said, critical race theory is not part of Indiana’s academic standards. I believe that transparency and parent involvement is paramount for our students to be successful. However, this legislation is part of an overall extreme political effort to control teachers, insert politics directly into classrooms by making school board races partisan and implement government-mandated censorship of our colleges and universities. As a result, we heard concerns that this would handcuff teachers and have a chilling effect on educators at a time when Indiana is struggling with teacher retention and recruitment. 

 

“Instead of spending our time on this egregious government overreach into our children’s lives, we should instead focus on actually helping our students. Recently, the US Surgeon General shared that our nation’s youth are in a mental health crisis due to the stresses of the previous few years. That’s why I filed Senate Bill 174 to help address student mental health and implement programs aimed at suicide prevention. If we want to help schools, students and families, let’s instead focus on addressing student mental health, bullying and long-term ways to address learning loss.”