A Minnesota school board is being criticized for voting unanimously to pay non-white teachers more money and separate them by skin color to help create “global citizens” through mentorship.
“[T]he board voted to amend district policy so that non-white teachers only may receive ‘additional stipends’ to become mentors to other non-white colleagues,” reported Alphanews about the vote by the the Mankato School District (MKSD). “The new policy will also have the district ‘placing American Indian educators at sites with other American Indian educators and educators of color at sites with other educators of color.’”
School board votes unanimously on a policy that would pay non-white teachers more and place them in work environments based on their race (segregation).
Here a member defends the decision. Unreal pic.twitter.com/zMMY5oytEZ— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) December 22, 2021
“It creates global citizens at the end of the day,” said board Vice Chair Kenneth Reid, according to Alpha.
One civil rights organization, The Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), warned that the Minnesota statute that allows the extra pay and segregation of non-white teachers “is discriminatory and potentially illegal.”
“This approach reinforces race-essentialism and creates division. It is also unfair, discriminatory, and possibly illegal, because it treats people differently based on immutable traits,” said FAIR about the law.
One Minnesota legislator blasted the decision by the MKSD and the law behind the extra pay and segregation policies.
“Our largest local school district just voted to pay people differently, not on merit, or by the content of their character, but based solely on the color of their skin,” said Rep. Jeremy Munson, a Republican who represents a district abutting Mankato, in southern Minnesota.
“I voted against this legislation [that allows it],” Munson added. “I called it racist when we debated it and believe it is wrong, racist, and unconstitutional to pay people more money or less money based solely on the color of their skin.”
It also assumes that non-white teachers aren’t as capable as white teachers. The actual language of the new district policy lumps American Indian teachers and “teachers of color” into a group with “new teachers,” “teachers with special needs” and “teachers in need of peer coaching.”
