HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3980        FILED ON: 2/19/2021

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3718

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Dylan A. Fernandes and Chynah Tyler

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act teaching anti-racism in Massachusetts schools.

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PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3980        FILED ON: 2/19/2021

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3718

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Second General Court
(2021-2022)

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An Act teaching anti-racism in Massachusetts schools.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Chapter 3 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding the following section:-

Section 72. (a) There shall be a permanent commission on anti-racist education to consist of: the commissioner of elementary and secondary education or a designee; 1 member appointed by the Massachusetts Asian American Commission; 1 member appointed by the Latino Advisory Commission; 1 member appointed by the by the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs; 3 historians specializing in racism in America appointed by the commissioner of elementary and secondary education; 2 members appointed by the Boston branch of NAACP Empowerment Programs, Inc.; 1 member appointed by American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, Inc.; 1 member appointed by the Massachusetts Teachers Association; 1 member appointed by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, Inc.; and 1 member appointed by the commissioner of elementary and secondary education.

(b) Members shall serve terms of 2 years. Vacancies in the membership of the commission shall be filled by the original appointing authority for the balance of the unexpired term.

(c) The commission shall elect from among its members a chair and vice chair and any other officers it deems necessary.

(d) The members of the commission shall receive no compensation for their services, but shall be reimbursed for any usual and customary expenses incurred in the performance of their duties.

(e) The commission shall develop a curriculum including, but not limited to: (i) selection of appropriate textbooks and selected works for schools to teach; (ii) instruction on racism in health to be taught in health classes; (iii) the legacy of scientific racism to be taught in science classes; (iv) systemic racism in literature and culture to be taught in English classes; (v) contradictions with the United States’ founding ideals and systemic racism and genocide in America, to be taught in history classes; (vi) the white genocide of Native Americans; (vii) the origins of slavery and white supremacist ideology in America; (viii) the Northern states’ role in profiting from and supporting slavery; (ix) the brutality and torture that white people inflicted upon black people in the antebellum South; (x) the exploitation of Native Americans and the taking of their lands; (xi) white terrorism in the post-reconstruction era; (xii) the apartheid Southern regime; (xiii) racial segregation in Northern states and white Northern racism; (xiv) black exclusion from federal reparations programs in the post-Civil War period; (xv) the internment of Japanese Americans and racism towards Asian people; (xvi) the evolution of the criminalization of black people and the 13th Amendment loophole; (xvii) support of the myths of white superiority and inferiority of Black, Indigenous and people of color by white scientists; and (xviii) the impact of racism on medicine and health.

(f) Notwithstanding any other general or special law to the contrary, the anti-racist curriculum developed by the commission shall be mandatory for elementary and secondary public schools and charter schools to teach in the commonwealth. The commission shall select textbooks that reflect the subjects taught in the anti-racist curriculum and recommend such textbooks for purchase pursuant to section 48 of chapter 71. The commission shall approve the final curriculum by a majority vote.

(g) After the curriculum is established, the commission shall meet, at a minimum, once a year to debate changes that may be approved by a simple majority vote. Not later than December 31 of each year, the commission shall report its findings and activities of the preceding year, as well as any policy recommendations, to the governor, the clerks of the house of representatives and the senate and the joint committee on education.

SECTION 2. The commission shall develop the curriculum pursuant to subsection (e) of section 72 of chapter 3 of the General Laws not later than 1 year after the effective date of this act and shall meet not less than 6 times during that year.