HB2490 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB103 25671 RJT 52020 b

103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2023 and 2024
HB2490

Introduced 2/15/2023, by Rep. Kam Buckner

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

105 ILCS 5/27-23.17 new

Amends the Courses of Study Article of the School Code. Provides that every public school shall include in its curriculum a unit of instruction studying the events of the civil rights movement in the United States from 1954 to 1968, the natural law and natural rights principles that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., drew from and that informed his leadership of the civil rights movement, and the tactics and strategies of nonviolent resistance that he championed in response to the Jim Crow laws of that era. Provides that the curriculum shall include an additional unit of instruction studying other acts of discriminatory injustice, such as genocide, elsewhere around the globe. Provides that the State Board of Education shall prepare and make available to all school boards instructional materials that may be used as guidelines for development of the units of instruction. Allows a school board to determine the minimum amount of instructional time required. Effective immediately.

STATE MANDATES ACT MAY REQUIRE REIMBURSEMENT MAY APPLY

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning education.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The School Code is amended by adding Section 27-23.17 as follows:

(105 ILCS 5/27-23.17 new)

Sec. 27-23.17. Civil rights and discriminatory injustice study.

(a) Every public elementary school and high school shall include in its curriculum a unit of instruction studying the events of the civil rights movement in the United States from 1954 to 1968, the natural law and natural rights principles that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., drew from and that informed his leadership of the civil rights movement, and the tactics and strategies of nonviolent resistance that he championed in response to the Jim Crow laws of that era. This period in American history is known as the Civil Rights Era because, during this period, reform-minded Americans organized to press for a rejection of the doctrine of "separate but equal" and to repeal the Jim Crow laws of that era in parts of the United States that embodied that doctrine. One of the universal lessons of the Civil Rights Era is that hatred on the basis of immutable characteristics, not just race or ethnicity but also characteristics such as nationality, religious belief, disability, or sex, can overtake any nation or society, leading to profound injustice.

To reinforce that lesson, the curriculum shall include an additional unit of instruction under this Section and in addition to the unit of instruction under Section 27-20.3 studying other acts of discriminatory injustice, such as genocide, elsewhere around the globe. This additional unit of instruction shall include, but not be limited to, the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, Chinese labor in Cuba, the Uyghurs in China, and the Rohingya of Myanmar.

The studying of the material under this Section is a reaffirmation of the commitment of the free peoples of this State to reject bigotry, to champion equal protection under the law as a foundational principle of our republic, and to act in opposition to injustice wherever it may occur.

(b) The State Board of Education shall prepare and make available to all school boards instructional materials that may be used as guidelines for development of the units of instruction under this Section.

(c) Each school board shall determine the minimum amount of instructional time required under this Section.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.