Minnesota Bills Push Discrimination With Race-Based Hiring Quotas, Punishments For Religious Colleges

Minnesota Democrats are pushing bills that promote the racist ideology of critical race theory and discriminate based on religious beliefs. HF 1269, authored by Democrat Reps. Kim Hicks and Laurie Pryor, requires high school students to take “ethnic studies” which effectively includes critical race theory and “intersectionality” into public school curricula. Furthermore, the bill explicitly states that “race and racism have been and continue to be powerful social, cultural, and political forces” and explores “the connection of race to the stratification of other groups, including stratification based on gender, class, sexuality, religion, and legal status.”

The legislation also discriminates against religious colleges by excluding them from offering dual-credit courses to high school students if they require a faith statement. This violates the First Amendment and gives secular, government-funded schools an unwarranted leg up in the education industry based solely on religious beliefs.

Another bill, HF 3079, demands that Minnesota schools consider skin color in teacher hiring decisions and removes certain testing requirements for would-be educators in an effort to increase the percentage of teachers of color by two percent annually. The bill essentially aims to shift power dynamics in education by making black students feel like victims and promotes an ideology rooted in identity politics.

Testifying against HF 1269, Kofi Montzka, a black Minnesota attorney and parent, criticized the bill as teaching black children that they are locked into an inferior class in a stratified society. She stated that the bill will not help children of color succeed and will remove any motivation to try.

These bills promote discrimination based on race and religious beliefs, violate the First Amendment, and prioritize identity politics over education.

Spencer Dalke is an intern at The Federalist and a Journalism major at Patrick Henry College.