Texas Bill Would Change KKK Teaching Requirement

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was founded in 1865 in the U.S. as a white southern resistance to the Republican party’s policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for Black Americans. Since that time, there have been surges of KKK activity, especially around the 1960s civil rights movement. At its peak in the 1920s, Klan membership exceeded 4 million people nationwide according to History.com. 

The topic of the KKK emerged in the Texas legislature as part of a bigger agenda to push back against a theoretical framework called critical race theory that some are recommending for educators. Critical race theory is a 40-year-old concept that says race is a social construct that extends beyond individual bias and is something embedded in legal systems and policies. In the regular legislative session in Texas back in May, a bill was passed in the House which limits how teachers can discuss race and current events in social studies courses. 

Since then, in a special legislative session in early July, the Texas Senate passed a bill that would limit teaching certain topics. According to The Austin American-Statesman, the new Senate Bill 3 states that a "teacher may not be compelled to discuss a particular current event or widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy or social affairs." Among the changes in the bill is the removal of a reference to the Ku Klux Klan being "morally wrong" from House Bill 3979, which was passed in May and set to become law in September. However, some state lawmakers and members of Texas' State Board of Education have said that the documents not included in SB 3 are not banned from being taught, but will be decided upon at a local level.  

At this point, the discussion around the changes to the original bill may not matter. The changes to the original bill cannot be accepted due to lack of quorum after more than 60 Texas House Democrats left the state and remain in Washington, D.C. with no plans yet to return.