Michigan students would start learning about Black, Asian, Latin, and other American minority cultural history under bills introduced this week in the Michigan Senate.
State Senator Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit) co-sponsors the package. She said everyone deserves to see their own histories reflected in lesson plans regardless of their background.
“This is really important for fostering greater cultural understanding, really combating some of the hate that's out there and then, you know, improving critical thinking skills as well,” Chang said.
Chang said the legislation came up as an idea following a rise in anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said other states adopted policies to encourage more education about Asian American history as a method of fighting racism.
The Michigan bills, Chang said, were modeled after Illinois’ TEAACH Act.
Another part of the bill package would require teachers and other student-facing school staff to receive cultural competency training.
Chang said that teacher training is important to ensure teachers have the right tools to cover the new topics.
“We have certainly seen, unfortunately, some circumstances in which you can teach about slavery, for example, in a way that is really not appropriate. And so we don't want that to happen. So having that professional development is really important,” Chang said in an allusion to cases of history lessons being mishandled in schools.
A third part of the legislation would create an advisory board with members from various cultures, education advocates, and labor unions to help create that curriculum.
Chang said education groups like teachers’ unions are supporting the package
Still, it could have a difficult path to the governor with few days remaining before the end of the legislative session.
