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Proposed Minnesota Licensure Rules Require Teachers Adhere to Gender Ideology

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

Friday, January 13, 2023

Contact: 

Chris Mulcahey

[email protected]

 

Proposed Minnesota Licensure Rules Require Teachers Adhere to Gender Ideology

Faithful Christians, Muslims, and Jews need not apply under this unconstitutional rulemaking

Golden Valley, MN – This week, The Federalist reported on Minnesota’s Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board’s (PELSB) attempt to require gender affirmation as a prerequisite to obtaining a state-certified license to teach in public and some private schools.

The finalized rules would require, to get a license, that prospective teachers and certain teachers seeking a more advanced license publicly support and affirm the chosen gender identity of their students without regard to the teachers’ religious views. In addition, the new rules would mandate that teachers demonstrate “understanding” that the controversial Critical Race Theory (CRT), which compels a worldview based on skin color instead of merit, is correct, and “ethnocentrism” and “white supremacy” are, in fact, the culprits for unequal outcomes in education.

Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC) Attorneys Doug Seaton and James Dickey submitted public comments in August of 2022 on the proposed teacher licensure amendments. Their remarks made clear that the proposed rules suffer substantial constitutional defects and are invalid under state and federal law; thus, they should not be approved.

UMLC has been tracking this matter for over a year and plans to present a legal challenge to the new licensing regime should the proposed rules go into effect. 

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Upper Midwest Law Center is a non-profit, public-interest law firm with the mission to initiate pro-freedom litigation to protect against constitutional violations, government overreach, special interest agendas, and public union corruption and abuses. UMLC is a 501(c)(3) organization.

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