1| HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES - FLOOR VERSION | | | 2| STATE OF OKLAHOMA | | | 3| 1st Session of the 59th Legislature (2023) | | | 4|COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE | |FOR | 5|HOUSE BILL NO. 1397 By: Lepak of the House | | | 6| and | | | 7| Bergstrom of the Senate | | | 8| | | | 9| | | | 10| COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE | | | 11| An Act relating to schools; mandating curriculum | | include a unit on the civil rights movement; | 12| providing description of curriculum; directing the | | State Superintendent of Public Instruction to prepare | 13| and make available materials; providing for | | codification; and providing an effective date. | 14| | | | 15| | | | 16|BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA: | | | 17| SECTION 1. NEW LAW A new section of law to be codified | | | 18|in the Oklahoma Statutes as Section 11-103.6p of Title 70, unless | | | 19|there is created a duplication in numbering, reads as follows: | | | 20| A. The State Department of Education shall develop and make | | | 21|available to every public elementary school and high school in the | | | 22|State of Oklahoma, a curriculum that may be taught as a stand-alone | | | 23|unit of instruction, or may be integrated into one or more existing | | | 24|courses of study, studying the events of the civil rights movement | | | arsid475338 HB1397 HFLR Page 1 ___________________________________________________________________________
1|from 1954 to 1968, the natural law and natural rights principles | | | 2|that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., drew from that informed | | | 3|his leadership of the civil rights movement, and the tactics and | | | 4|strategies of nonviolent resistance that he championed in response | | | 5|to the Jim Crow laws of that era. This period in American history | | | 6|is known as the civil rights era because during this period | | | 7|reform-minded Americans organized to press for a rejection of the | | | 8|doctrine of "separate but equal" and to repeal the Jim Crow-era laws | | | 9|in parts of the United States that embodied that doctrine. One of | | | 10|the universal lessons of the civil rights era is that hatred on the | | | 11|basis of immutable characteristics, including not just race or | | | 12|ethnicity, but also characteristics such as nationality, religious | | | 13|belief, disability, or sex, can overtake any nation or society, | | | 14|leading to profound injustice. To reinforce that lesson, such | | | 15|curriculum shall include an additional unit of instruction studying | | | 16|other acts of discriminatory injustice, such as genocide, committed | | | 17|elsewhere around the globe. The study of this material is a | | | 18|reaffirmation of the commitment of the people of this state to | | | 19|reject bigotry, to champion equal protection under the law as a | | | 20|foundational principle of our Republic, and to act in opposition to | | | 21|injustice wherever it may occur. | | | 22| B. The State Department of Education shall identify resources | | | 23|and provide exemplar units or sample lesson plans designed to help | | | 24| | | | arsid475338 HB1397 HFLR Page 2 ___________________________________________________________________________
1|teachers provide instruction on the subject matter outlined in this | | | 2|act. | | | 3|SECTION 2. This act shall become effective November 1, 2023. | | | 4| | | | 5|COMMITTEE REPORT BY: COMMITTEE ON COMMON EDUCATION, dated 03/01/2023 | |- DO PASS, As Amended and Coauthored. | 6| | | | 7| | | | 8| | | | 9| | | | 10| | | | 11| | | | 12| | | | 13| | | | 14| | | | 15| | | | 16| | | | 17| | | | 18| | | | 19| | | | 20| | | | 21| | | | 22| | | | 23| | | | 24| | | | arsid475338 HB1397 HFLR Page 3