Bill banning critical race theory in schools dies in New Mexico Legislative session

Originally Published on Carlsbad Current-Argus

A Republican-sponsored bill that would ban the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) in New Mexico schools was found to be non-germane by a state legislative committee on Tuesday.

Ten members of the New Mexico House Rules and Order of Business Committee — all Democrat — voted against the bill while four Republicans voted in favor.

If passed some of the things House Bill 91 (HB 91) "Prohibit Critical Race Theory Teaching," would have banned offering courses in CRT, according to the bill's language, teaching anything that would create feelings of "discomfort, guilt, anguish or distress" because of a person's race or gender and promoting the idea that social problems are created by a racist or patriarchal society.

Idaho and North Dakota passed similar legislation in 2021 explicitly banning CRT in public schools. Other states including Texas passed legislation that barred instruction that could evoke feeling of "discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual ’s race or sex."

In New Mexico, Republicans claimed that CRT teaches students to be racist while Democrats and the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) said CRT is not part of of any state K-12 curriculum.

The bill was introduced by Rep. Rebecca Dow (R-38) and sponsored by Reps. Luis M. Terrazas (R-39), James Townsend (R-54), Candy Spence Ezzell (D-58) and Randall Pettigrew (R-61)…