NASHVILLE — A bill brought by Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, that would prevent school systems, public charter schools and higher education institutions from requiring “implicit bias” training for teachers and other school employees sparked fierce debate Friday in the Tennessee Senate.
The bill would also bar any adverse employment action against those who refuse such a training.
“It doesn’t matter whether you agree or disagree with this type of training or searching your soul or accusing you of being something that you are or not, what this bill says is if you fundamentally disagree with what you’re being forced to take or agree to, you don’t have to,” Gardenhire, who is white, told senators. “And what’s more, they can’t hold it against you if you don’t want to take it or you fail to take it.”
Implicit bias, also known as implicit prejudice or implicit attitude, is a negative attitude of which one is not consciously aware, against a specific group, according to the American Psychological Association. The training is aimed at boosting self-awareness around subconscious prejudices and stereotypes that may affect how people view and treat people of another race, ethnicity or socioeconomic background.
Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, a Black Democrat from Memphis, said the training is designed help teachers and would-be teachers recognize “stereotypes that we hold” and to think differently.
“Those types of thoughts affect our judgment,” Akbari said, using as an example if she sees someone from a rural area and “I automatically assume they’re uneducated, or I see someone from an urban area and I automatically assume they’re a criminal, and I make my decisions based on those beliefs.”
She said implicit bias does not “accuse anyone” of being racist, sexist or anything like that.
“It simply says based on the things that we’ve experienced in our life, we hold certain beliefs that impact our judgment and can lead to prejudice,” she said.
“There is nothing in this bill, absolutely nothing in this bill, that prohibits a school,” Gardenhire replied, “from offering these types of courses. They can offer them all day along, all week long, all month long, delve into their souls and decide what you’re prejudiced about. They can do that. You just can’t make me do it and hold it against me if I don’t want to do it. That’s all this bill does.”
Akbari said teachers are required to do all sorts of training “because we want them to be the best possible teacher they can be.
“Implicit bias training is not forcing you to admit that you have certain biases, it’s giving you an opportunity to think beyond what your worldview is and what stereotypes you may hold so you can have the best judgment possible,” she said.
Akbari said she became interested in the area after reading research showing Black teachers were “harsher” in administering discipline to Black students versus their white counterparts.
Senate Democratic Caucus Chairwoman London Lamar, another Black Democratic lawmaker from Memphis, said school counselors and psychologists are required to take such training, too.
She said someone “must be able to look at intentional and unintentional biases in counseling.”
“Members,” Lamar said, “let’s stop acting like this world is not a melting pot. It is. It is.”
Sen. Page Walley, a white Republican from Savannah and a clinical psychologist, spoke in favor of the bill.
“Maybe part of my biases is having been asked to participate in one of these training programs where I was looked down upon, and this was a national training. I was looked upon and because of how I looked, what part of the country I was from and was labeled. And this was from the instructors, this was not from me,” Walley said.
He said the experience “left a fairly indelible imprint on me about who’s training matters, who’s training to do this training matters.”
The bill passed the Senate on a 24-3 vote and later passed the House 71-22. It’s headed to the governor’s desk for a signature.
In other action Friday:
— Lawmakers approved legislation to bring the state’s private school voucher program to Hamilton County. It allows lower-income parents to use the taxpayer-funded education savings account funds, about $8,100 per student annually, to send their children to private schools willing to accept them.
There was a last-minute tussle with the House having included Knox County in the bill. But after Lt. Gov. McNally, R-Oak Ridge, and Knox County senators opposed the addition, House Education Administration Chairman Mark White, R-Memphis, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press he would make the bill applicable only to Hamilton.
The House gave final approval to the bill, according to the legislative website.
Metro Nashville and Shelby County already have legislatively imposed voucher programs.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-285-9480.