Minnesota Poised To Ban Christians, Muslims, And Jews From Teaching In Public Schools

Minnesota is soon to ban Christians, Muslims, and Jews teaching in public schools. It will require that all state-certified teachers be certified. “fosters an environment that ensures student identities such as … gender identity … are … affirmed.” The new requirements will be immediately challenged in both state and federal courts once they clear the final procedural hurdle. This was according to a civil liberties lawyer who spoke to The Federalist Tuesday.

“We have lots of parents who are upset by this sort of thing in schools already,” said Doug Seaton, president of Minnesota’s Upper Midwest Law Center, in an interview. “They’re going to be even more upset with how their teachers are going to be licensed. Their teachers are going to have to be faced with hiding their beliefs or getting denied [for a state teaching license].”

Seaton stated that it was correct to refer to the almost finalized regulations as communicating. “Christians, Muslims, and Jews need not apply for Minnesota teaching jobs.” He stated that it is unconstitutional and that UMLC intends to sue the government once the changes take effect.

A spokeswoman for the state agency responsible for the changes denied that they would ban religious Americans from teaching at Minnesota schools. The spokeswoman did not respond to a follow-up asking how Christians, Jews, and Muslims could adhere to their faith while complying with the licensing requirements that all new teachers publicly reject their faiths’ declaration that God has created only two sexes, male and female.

Minnesota’s Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB), a division of the state Department of Education, has been working to change teacher certification requirements since 2019. Its. The latest public draft, which is finalized save for a few tweaks that don’t affect the content, includes multiple requirements that licensure candidates publicly support critical race theory and transgender ideology and include both in their teaching. To be eligible to teach in Minnesota’s public and private schools, teachers must have state licensure.

PELSB Justified Its changes by claiming “the predominantly white teacher workforce must be equipped to understand their own implicit bias and the unique lived experiences of all their students as a core requirement of teaching. For this reason, PELSB has worked closely with a wide range of stakeholders, including researchers and experts in the field of pedagogy, to ensure that anti-racism, cultural competency, and implicit bias were effectively embedded and identified throughout the scope of the proposed Standards of Effective Practice” (page 62).

“Standards for effective teaching” 1.A requires that a teacher candidate be registered in order to take part in the almost finalized regulations “affirm[] the validity of students’ backgrounds and identities.”

Standard 2D demands that a teacher be licensed “fosters an environment that ensures student identities such as race/ethnicity … sex and gender, gender identity, sexual orientation … are historically and socially contextualized, affirmed, and incorporated into a learning environment where students are empowered to learn…”

Standard 2F mandates that “The teacher communicates verbally and nonverbally in ways that demonstrate respect for and responsiveness to the cultural backgrounds and differing perspectives learners bring to