House Republicans advance education bill restricting discussions on racism & gender

Republicans on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce advanced legislation Thursday that critics say would push federally supported civics and history education deeper into the culture wars by restricting discussions of transgender identity, systemic racism, and diversity in American classrooms.

The bill, H.R. 8705, known as the “Civics and History Advancement to Restore Learning, Integrity, and Education Act,” or CHARLIE Act, moved favorably out of committee less than 24 hours after House Republicans passed another controversial education measure targeting transgender students nationwide.

The CHARLIE Act would prohibit federally funded American history and civics programs from using funds for what the legislation calls “gender ideology” and “discriminatory equity ideology.”

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Rather than defining those terms itself, the bill imports definitions directly from two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump after his inauguration. One of those orders, Executive Order 14168, rejects the idea that gender identity can differ from sex assigned at birth and positions recognition of transgender people as “gender ideology extremism.”

LGBTQ+ advocates say federally funded civics and history education programs could be barred from acknowledging transgender people as part of American history at all.

That could affect programs supported by the American History and Civics Education initiative, including the Presidential and Congressional Academies for American History and Civics, as well as other federally funded national civics education efforts.

The Congressional Equality Caucus condemned the legislation on Thursday as a censorship measure masquerading as education policy.

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“This bill censors some of the leading government-funded history and civics educational programs in an act of unacceptable overreach,” Rep. Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus and a senior member of the committee, said in a statement.

“Censoring American history doesn’t change what happened — it dooms future generations to forget and potentially repeat the mistakes of the past,” Takano, who is gay, said. “Importantly, denying the existence of transgender people and the lasting effects of racism on American society does nothing to make American education better.”

The measure also adopts language from Executive Order 14190, which targets what the administration describes as “discriminatory equity ideology.” Critics warn that the provision could discourage or prohibit federally funded programs from discussing slavery, segregation, Jim Crow laws, structural racism, and other longstanding inequities woven throughout American history.

The bill additionally bars the Department of Education from prioritizing grant applicants based on race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or immigration status.

Just one day earlier, House Republicans passed H.R. 2616, a separate bill opponents dubbed the “Don’t Say Trans” measure.

That legislation would require schools receiving federal funding to notify parents in some situations involving transgender students and would prohibit federally funded schools from teaching concepts Republicans characterize as “gender ideology.”

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LGBTQ+ advocates warned the bill could effectively force teachers and school staff to out transgender students to parents, including in households where students may face rejection, abuse, or homelessness. The measure passed with support from eight Democrats, including Virginia Rep. Eugene Vindman and Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar.

Supporters of the CHARLIE Act argue the legislation is necessary to prevent ideological instruction in taxpayer-funded programs and to restore what Republicans call viewpoint-neutral education.

But for critics, it is about who gets remembered in American history and who is legislated out of it.

Denying the lasting impacts Jim Crow and slavery have had on American society is denying reality, and restricting educators from honing their knowledge on these dark—but important—topics is an incredibly dangerous disservice to American students,” Takano said.