From libraries to police training: Controversial Ohio education bill goes beyond classroom
Anna Staver The Columbus Dispatch March 21, 2022
The Columbus library system started holding monthly events in 2021 where community leaders discussed books, articles and movies about race, racism and social justice.
The documentary "I Am Not Your Negro" kicked off the Speak Up, Speak Out series, and a panel on "So You Want to Talk About Race" is scheduled for April 5.
"It's a good way for the community to get insight into issues," said Anthony Wilson, the library's chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer. And the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
But the library's June discussion of the memoir "White Like Me" could be rejected if House Bill 327 becomes law.
"I’ve read through it a couple of times, and I can see a lot of challenges for library systems," Wilson said. "It could impact what materials we carry and for sure what programs we do."
Not just an education bill
Ohioans who support and oppose HB 327 have mostly testified about its impacts on K-12 education.
They say rules for discussing divisive concepts such as racism and slavery would either protect "accurate" and "unbiased" teachings of American history or "whitewash" those narratives with its vague definitions and harsh penalties. Teachers who violated the law could lose their licenses.
The penalties for other public employees are less clear, but HB 327 says no state agency or political subdivision shall offer certain kinds of training or instruction to their employees, contractors or outside groups.
That list of divisive concepts includes:
That people can't succeed or achieve equality because of their race, ethnicity, color, sex, religion or national origin.
That people of any race, ethnicity, color, sex, religion or national origin are inherently superior or inferior.
That people should be adversely or advantageously treated because of their race, ethnicity, color, sex, religion or national origin.
That people of certain groups can be inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.
And no one "shall be required to complete a curriculum including divisive concepts as a condition or prerequisite of employment."
"We are all very concerned about what this might mean," Ohio Mayors Alliance Director Keary McCarthy said. "The ambiguity of the language and what the potential impacts might be on a wide variety of government functions."
A question of local control
For example, Dayton Mayor Jeff Mims, a Democrat, said his city has been working to implement 142 recommendations for improving interactions between the community and its police force.
The list includes everything from de-escalation to approaching people with different disabilities and the unconscious biases officers may carry.
HB 327 might get in the way of those reforms, he said, because of its restrictions for discussing unconscious bias.
"If we were to exclude books and data that validates these things have happened, it would be impossible to educate our community and justify the changes that need to be made," Mims said.
Lalitha Pamidigantam, a policy analyst for YWCA Columbus, said public entities might stop taking the diversity training courses YWCA offers.
"We wouldn’t want to change any of our material, but those contracting with us might cancel their contracts if they were a political subdivision or audit our classes," she said.
Cities, counties, townships and libraries would all have to submit annual reports to the Department of Administrative Services on their compliance.
"It flies in the face of local control," Franklin County Commissioner Erica Crawley said. "We should leave it up to local governments to do what’s best for them. If they don’t want to deal in equity or addressing discrimination, they don’t have to. But for us, it’s one of our pillars, and it’s been successful."
Sponsors of the bill, Republican Reps. Diane Grendell and Sarah Fowler Arthur, didn't respond to requests for comment made through a spokesperson.
But when HB 327 was introduced, Fowler Arthur told The USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau they "became aware in the research process that some state agencies are requiring employees to take training and agree with certain ideological viewpoints."
That was a problem for the Ashtablula Republican because she doesn't think public jobs should require people to hold certain beliefs.
"I feel it's very important to realize that our differences can be our greatest strength," Fowler Arthur said. But some training that calls itself DEI actually "focuses on ideological concepts that tear us apart."
Self censorship
Cuyahoga County’s Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board went back and forth about whether racism or discrimination should be called a public health crisis.
The board ultimately landed on racism, but Pamidigantam thought that was indicative of the "negative attention" diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are getting across the state.
"The chilling effect from this bill would become even worse," she said. If educators and employers don't know where the line is, they may back away from legitimate programming to be safe.
"I don’t really know that I can define what a divisive concept is because diversity is the United State of America," Wilson said.
And public libraries are central to that narrative.
"We're neutral public entities where different voices and different opinions can be shared," Wilson said. "We don’t endorse the materials in our collection, but we want to make sure that we carry the different books. We provide people with the ability to choose."
Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.