Bill Text: MI SB0962 | 2021-2022 | 101st Legislature | Introduced

Michigan Senate Bill 962 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Education: curriculum; recommended model core academic curriculum content standards; modify to strongly encourage inclusion of learning objectives concerning Indian boarding schools. Amends 1976 PA 451 (MCL 380.1 - 380.1852) by adding sec. 1168a.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-03-15 - Referred To Committee On Education And Career Readiness [SB0962 Detail]

Download: Michigan-2021-SB0962-Introduced.html

SENATE BILL NO. 962

March 15, 2022, Introduced by Senators SCHMIDT and IRWIN and referred to the Committee on Education and Career Readiness.

A bill to amend 1976 PA 451, entitled

"The revised school code,"

(MCL 380.1 to 380.1852) by adding section 1168a.

The people of the state of michigan enact:

Sec. 1168a. (1) Beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, the board of a school district or board of directors of a public school academy is strongly encouraged to ensure that the school district's or public school academy's core academic curriculum for grades 8 to 12 includes learning objectives concerning Indian boarding schools.

(2) As used in this section, "Indian boarding schools" means entities that had or have as their purpose the cultural assimilation of Indigenous children through the forceful relocation of these children from their families and communities to distant residential facilities where the children's American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian identities, languages, and beliefs were to be forcibly suppressed.

(3) It is the intent of the legislature that the amendatory act that added this section serve as recognition of the following:

(a) That many Indigenous children spent the entirety of their childhood in school systems without seeing their parents or families for many years.

(b) That Indigenous children have suffered physical, sexual, cultural, and spiritual abuse and neglect and have experienced treatment that, in many cases, constituted torture for speaking their native languages.

(c) That Indigenous children have lost their lives at Indian boarding schools due to abuse, malnutrition, starvation, neglect, inadequate medical care, and disease.