Texas Rep. Cody Harris (R-Palestine) has filed a bill in the Texas House that would ban the teaching of critical race theory in public colleges and universities in the state, making a school ineligible to receive state funding if it teaches CRT.
In an interview with the Lone Star Standard, Harris said House Bill 1607 is "pretty simple. It says that an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously, they can't teach that."
Harris said he got the idea from a parent whose son attended a college that "required the students to basically analyze everything through the lens of race," adding that the student received poor grades or mistreatment "if (the student's work) didn't line up with the way the professor was telling them that it should." After reviewing the issue further, Harris decided to file the bill to stop such lessons.
Texas Rep. Cody Harris
| Facebook/Cody Harris
"How invasive is this in our university system?" Harris asked. "And critical race theory, in general, is a very broad term that's used, and a lot of people mean different things by it. So that's why my bill, HB 1607, is very clear in what can or cannot be taught."
According to Fox 4 KDFW, HB 1607 would explicitly prevent schools from teaching that "an individual, by virtue of the individual's race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously."
In a Jan. 25 Facebook post, Harris wrote, "Our American values will not be watered down or twisted for the political agenda of the far left. Building on our work from last session to ban critical race theory in our K-12 classrooms, I filed House Bill 1607, which will keep it from being taught at Texas college and university campuses. Texas must push back on the progressive agenda to indoctrinate the minds of our future, and I’m proud to help lead the effort."
In a similar move, newly elected Texas Rep. Carl Tepper (R-Lubbock) filed a measure that would ban offices of diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) in public universities and would remove state funding from those that retain those offices.
According to The Texan, HB 1006 was filed "relating to protected expression, intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity at public institutions of higher education." Additionally, the bill would allow a person to sue an entity if the bill's requirements are ignored. Tepper said he believes publicly funded universities should remain politically neutral.
The Texan also reported that in 2021 the Texas Legislature passed a bill against CRT, although some are skeptical if it is actually functional. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) has said he is not satisfied with the progress on this issue, and he has stated his wishes to "eliminate it (CRT) from public schools."
