Proposed licensing changes would require all new educators to receive ‘equity’ training

Substantial revisions to the standards educators learn in Minnesota’s teacher preparation programs have recently been proposed.

The Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) announced the proposed teacher licensing changes will “set forth the knowledge and skills that all teachers must demonstrate to receive their license” and “represent a substantial departure from what’s currently in the rules. It goes far beyond tweaking existing standards, and reimagines what equitable, student-centered teaching and learning can and should look like.”

If passed, these rule changes would require teacher licensing programs to include instruction on:

“A sharpened focus on educational equity.”

The proposed changes would also require teachers to focus on and address cultural competency, implicit biases, cultural relevance, etc. and include:

• “facilitate culturally responsive, research-based, student-centered classroom management and schoolwide positive discipline intervention and prevention strategies…” (Standard 39)
• “assist learners as they recognize and process dehumanizing biases, discrimination, prejudices, and institutional and personal racism and sexism” (Standard 41)
• “reflect on the ability for implicit bias to shape discretionary spaces and the role this can play in reproducing or disrupting systems of oppression in schools” (Standard 54)

Educational “equity” does not mean “treating kids equally”; it means giving preferential treatment to certain students at the expense of others. The left uses this form of cultural Marxism to push for viewing education through the lens of race, gender, and sex. Policies focused on “equity” have resulted in a rise of behavior problems and violence in classrooms, jeopardizing both student and teacher safety, and have also negatively impacted educational standards and learning.

This push to require all new public educators to receive equity training in order to be licensed to teach in Minnesota should be opposed.

Note: The Center will keep you up to date on the development of the proposed rule changes. PELSB is expected to have all finalizations occur by June 2020.