East Central Reporter

Rep. Chris Miller (R-Robinson) said the Illinois State Board of Education’s embrace of a “Culturally Responsive” teaching standard speaks to how the agency has lost its way.

“There seems to be little resolve when it comes to teaching reading, writing or arithmetic, but you see these effort[s] when it comes to attempts at social engineering,” Miller told the East Central Reporter. “There are no bills being brought forward that will help to increase the aptitude of our kids, but we see what’s happening with this attempt at programming them.”

A state committee will consider the new standards at a meeting later this month.

Among the measures, the new rule would have teachers assess “how their biases and perceptions affect their teaching practice and how they access tools to mitigate their own behavior (racism, sexism, homophobia, unearned privilege, Eurocentrism, etc.),” The Center Square Reported.

The potential changes are about politics, Miller said.

“A lot of time people get so caught up in ideology and completely lose themselves in that,” Miller added. “For Democrats, I think that’s what’s happening here. We need to realize the main thing here is to make sure our children are being educated. There’s no place for stuff like this if we’ve got our eyes on the right goal of educating our children to be responsible people and individual thinkers.”

With the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) set to convene to consider the proposal on Tuesday, Feb. 16, Miller said he plans to educate parents about the perils of the proposal.

“I’ll be getting the message out about what’s in the bill and exposing the radical left for what they’re trying to do,” he said. “I’m hopeful if enough parents step up to have their voices heard, that will be enough to fight this off.”

At least eight JCAR members from the 12-member bipartisan panel would have to support a motion to block the proposal from taking effect in roughly eight months.