The sticky wicket of hiring public school teachers in Tennessee got stickier when a 2019 state law was passed requiring districts to have educator diversity goals — and stickier still when it repealed the law earlier this year and said school districts shouldn’t use race in hiring decisions.
Hamilton County Board of Education member Larry Grohn, R-East Ridge, raised the question at a policy committee meeting Monday. He posited that the district doesn’t need an educator diversity policy.
(IN THE NEWS: Hamilton County school board members question educator diversity policy)
“If we’re truly honoring what is the moral, right thing to do and following federal law, we’re not supposed to discriminate on race, ethnicity, language, socioeconomic backgrounds, gender, sex, anything,” Grohn said. “I don’t think we need this policy. We’re going to be looking for the best candidate. When you introduce something like this, that says you’re going to put extra emphasis that automatically defers discrimination.”
We wish it were that easy.