State Rep. Ed Oliver (R-Dadeville) put forward a bill this year that would effectively ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Alabama schools, but the bill failed to get through before the end of the last legislative session.
House Bill 312 aimed to prevent public school students from being exposed to instruction which teaches that one race, sex or religion is superior to the other.
Recently on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program,” State Rep. Scott Stadthagen said he plans to make sure a ban on CRT passed next session.
“I’ve been traveling around and speaking to almost every current member and every incoming member and there are issues that keep coming up,” Stagthagen said. “First is cleaning up the unfinished business from last year with the ban on CRT that Representative Ed Oliver sponsored.”
Stadthagen said he was disappointed that, while the House was able to get it passed, the Senate didn’t finish the job.
“Well, we passed it though the House last year,” he said. “Unfortunately, ran out of time upstairs in the Senate. That’s just something we need to go ahead … unfinished business. Representative Oliver has done a phenomenal job working on that bill, and it’s just I don’t like leaving things undone.”
He also said he doesn’t expect anything to really get in the way of the CRT ban being passed and signed by the governor this upcoming session.
“To be honest I think it was just time,” he said. “We just ran out of time in the Senate last year … and I think this year we’ve got plenty of time and we won’t have a problem with it.”
In August, the state board of education has approved a ban on teaching CRT in schools as well.
Stadthagen is running to be the majority leader in the House and said he plans to continue to stand up for conservative principles in the Legislature, including fighting for better schools.
“Through past legislation, I’ve proven I’ll stand strong for Republican values,” he said. “Through the different legislation I’ve passed, I’ve shown leadership through that. I’m also a business owner since 2005, but also I’ve been in athletics almost my whole entire life so I’m used to having a team atmosphere and setting goals and accomplishing those goals and I think that’s what we need within our caucus is to be a team, to be strong Republicans for our constituents. They elected us to be Republicans and stand for our Republican issues and that’s what we need to do for our people. And I think, at the end of the day, my qualities as a business owner and being able to provide for the members the way I can, I think I’m a good candidate and I’m looking forward to it.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
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