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Columbus City Schools, the Columbus Board of Education, and CCS Labor Partners are United in Strongly Opposing HB 322 and HB 327
June 7, 2021 -- Columbus City Schools, the Columbus Board of Education, and CCS labor partners are united in strongly opposing HB 322 and HB 327, both of which can only be described as solutions in search of a problem. We have significant concerns as to the impact upon student learning and outcomes, not only for the students we serve in Columbus but for all students across Ohio.
These bills amount to an unprecedented regulation of curriculum and instruction. They aim to suppress dialogue and perpetuate an inaccurate understanding of our history. In doing so, they threaten to exacerbate the current national divide.
As a public school district, it is our responsibility to facilitate our nation’s healing through a truthful curriculum that provides a complete and honest rendering of our history, provided in an open, supportive, culturally responsive, and psychologically safe environment for all students. It is the absence of such truth regarding our historical narrative that has caused our current social unrest.
As a nation, we have begun the necessary dialogue to overcome this divide. Education and common understanding are necessary components of this process and, indeed, the only true pathway to healing. It is difficult to view these bills as anything but an attempt to impede this process and fan the flames of dissension and polarization currently gripping our country. If passed into law, the outcome would constitute an extreme and unwarranted incursion into local control and undermine the free flow of information and ideas that serve as the foundation of our democracy.
We call upon our state legislators to not only vote these bills down but to vocally speak up and against the divisiveness they cause to the students of Ohio. We ask all other educational institutions, government bodies, students, families, non-profits, businesses, and the community to stand with us and speak out against this proposed limitation of a foundational principle of democracy—education.