[H-PAD] Fwd: [Ext] AHA Releases Statement Opposing Florida HB 999

Mon Mar 6 10:02:45 PST 2023

In case  you have not seen this statement, please read it and share it. And
note the use of the word "horror!"

Margaret Power for
Historians for Peace and Democracy

*Solidarity Across the Americas: The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and
Antiimperialism*
https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469674056/solidarity-across-the-americas/
Margaret Power
Professor of History Emerita
Department of Humanities
Illinois Institute of Technology
3301 South Dearborn
Chicago, Illinois 60616

*I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land I am on today, the
Kickapoo and the Potawatami, and pay my respects to their elders past and
present.*

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: American Historical Association <announcements at historians.org>
Date: Mon, Mar 6, 2023 at 9:02 AM
Subject: [Ext] AHA Releases Statement Opposing Florida HB 999
To: <power at iit.edu>

[image: American Historical Association]
<http://historians.informz.net/z/cjUucD9taT0zODY0Njc5JnA9MSZ1PTM5MzYzNTQ0OCZsaT0zOTc5Mjk1OQ/index.html>

Dear Colleague,

The American Historical Association has released a *statement
<http://historians.informz.net/z/cjUucD9taT0zODY0Njc5JnA9MSZ1PTM5MzYzNTQ0OCZsaT0zOTc5Mjk2MA/index.html>*
expressing horror at the assumptions that lie at the heart of Florida House
Bill 999 and its “blatant and frontal attack on principles of academic
freedom and shared governance central to higher education in the United
States.” Filed in the Florida House of Representatives on February 21,
2023, HB 999 represents “an attempt at a hostile takeover of a state’s
system of higher education.” “Florida’s legislature has on its agenda a
dagger to the heart of an American institutional framework that has long
been the envy of the world,” the AHA writes. This bill is not only about
Florida. “It is about the heart and soul of public higher education in the
United States and about the role of history, historians, and historical
thinking in the lives of the next generation of Americans.”

The statement is reproduced below and available, along with a full list of
signatories, *on our website
<http://historians.informz.net/z/cjUucD9taT0zODY0Njc5JnA9MSZ1PTM5MzYzNTQ0OCZsaT0zOTc5Mjk2MA/index.html>*.
To date, 34 organizations have signed onto the statement. If you are a
member of an organization that would like to add its signature to this
statement, please have that organization's leadership get in touch with the
AHA at *info at historians.org <info at historians.org>*.

__________________________________________________

HB 999, filed in the Florida House of Representatives on February 21, 2023,
merits attention and comment.

The American Historical Association has been monitoring the genre of
legislation commonly referred to as “divisive concepts” bills for two
years. Normally we do not engage with what gets fed into the hopper; we
wait until legislation is viable, generally when a bill emerges from
committee. But HB 999 is different, and we consider it imperative to speak
out immediately and forcefully. What has previously best been characterized
as unwarranted political intervention into public education has now
escalated to an attempt at a hostile takeover of a state’s system of higher
education.

We express horror (not our usual “concern”) at the assumptions that lie at
the heart of this bill and its blatant and frontal attack on principles of
academic freedom and shared governance central to higher education in the
United States. Florida’s legislature has on its agenda a dagger to the
heart of an American institutional framework that has long been the envy of
the world (and a source of billions of dollars in revenue from
international students).

What would implementation of this legislation look like? Consider history
education.

HB 999 allows political appointees unprecedented oversight of day-to-day
educational decisions. Universities and departments will face consequences
should unelected partisan actors decide that any “general education core
courses” somehow “suppress or distort significant historical events.” All
history teachers “suppress” some events; everything has a history, and no
course can include all histories. It is up to the teacher, within
reasonable state guidelines, to select what is most important and most
useful to students in a particular class. All else is “suppressed.”

The bill also gives to boards of trustees the authority to determine if and
when teachers of a mandated set of core courses have “define[d] American
history as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on the universal
principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.” Is it illegal for a
faculty member to suggest that the US Constitution, rather than the
Declaration of Independence, created the political framework for the new
nation? Given that HB 999 would empower boards of regents to review the
tenure status of any faculty member, such legitimate (and pedagogically
useful) interpretive disagreements could have dire implications for all
instructors, even faculty best protected by traditional norms of governance
and procedure.

This is not merely an escalation of the “history wars” that have ebbed and
flowed across the American landscape—and indeed, in other nations as well;
the United States is hardly exceptional in this regard. Like the proponents
of more conventional “divisive concepts” legislation, advocates of this
particular assault especially fear the implications of the state’s youth
learning that slavery and racism have enduring legacies. The idea that
racism is a central aspect of American historical development—and its
enduring presence in institutions, cultures, and practices—is well within
the mainstream of historical scholarship, however much we might disagree
about dynamics, relationships, and models of change. Notably, HB 999
mentions “critical race theory” more often than the words “democracy,”
“freedom,” and “liberty” combined. This legislation aims to incite and
divide, rather than to establish a healthy foundation for civic
understanding.

The AHA does not disagree with HB 999’s premise that the mission of the
state university system should be “education for citizenship of the
constitutional republic [and] . . . the state’s existing and emerging
workforce needs.” Employers look for applicants who have learned how to
think, rather than what to think. Using evidence and deciding what facts
matter is vital to being a successful engineer, doctor, or teacher. Would
we want heart surgeons whose coursework or choice of tools had been
dictated by political appointees? As for the viability of our
constitutional republic, it is neither possible nor desirable to forge
unity by refusing to acknowledge and understand division; instead, the very
language of this legislation sows and perpetuates division. An informed
citizenry requires the skills of historical literacy and the ability to
test ideas, which is the core of history education.

This is not only about Florida. It is about the heart and soul of public
higher education in the United States and about the role of history,
historians, and historical thinking in the lives of the next generation of
Americans.

__________________________________________________

*Teaching History with Integrity*

The AHA, its members, and other historians find ourselves on the front
lines of a conflict over understandings of America’s past, confronting
radical activists who are promoting ignorance in the name of unity. Please
visit our *Teaching History with Integrity
<http://historians.informz.net/z/cjUucD9taT0zODY0Njc5JnA9MSZ1PTM5MzYzNTQ0OCZsaT0zOTc5Mjk2MQ/index.html>*
site for the most up-to-date information about AHA efforts to combat these
bills and for resources and expressions of support for history educators.
We hope that you will distribute widely our short videos on *Teaching with
Integrity: Historians Speak
<http://historians.informz.net/z/cjUucD9taT0zODY0Njc5JnA9MSZ1PTM5MzYzNTQ0OCZsaT0zOTc5Mjk2Mg/index.html>*
.

Sincerely,

James Grossman

Executive Director

*American Historical Association*

400 A St. SE

Washington, DC 20003

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