New Hampshire just passed the CHARLIE Act. Be angry.

Last week, the New Hampshire State Legislature passed the “Countering Hate and Revolutionary Leftists Indoctrination in Education Act,” otherwise known as the “CHARLIE” Act. The new bill, named after a deceased podcaster, Charlie Kirk, prohibits the teaching of a broad array of subjects in public schools, including critical race theory, the recognition of the LGBTQ+ community and any lesson that encourages sharing — all of which it declares “Marxist ideologies.” Indeed, the act itself appears as an example of “out-of-time” legislation, suited more for the red-scare tactics of 1940’s McCarthyism, rather than our modern years of the 21st century, where we can retrospectively recognize the impact such cruel, hateful and factually incorrect language had. Most concerning, the bill has gone by without any real uproar — and yet it represents among the most ill-informed, biased and bigoted pieces of legislation to emerge from our nation since the end of the Civil Rights Movement. It is not just deserving of reproach, but outrage.  

Perhaps most notable to the act is its misconstrued attempt at interpreting the pedagogy it seeks to ban. Under its rule it would remove any and all “liberation narratives [about] overthrowing systems and hierarchies.” It should be pointed out that the American Revolution — a central topic throughout many American history classes — is itself a liberation narrative. One would hope that this is a mere oversight of the Education Committee, as the alternative conclusion is that the committee itself is not so educated after all. Indeed, once-upon-a-time such a retraction of history would have branded oneself not only a traitor to the American way, but a Tory of colonial times. Now, it seems, the sentiment is instead to be commended as a brave act against some invisible “wokeness” that stands against this right-wing Orwellian agenda — a strange paradox for a bill so focused on “protecting” American civic education.  

These ill-informed politics could be forgiven if it was not for the bigotry represented within them. The CHARLIE Act now bans any and all mention of “class, race, or identity-based conflict.” Not only do all of these issues play irrefutable roles in not only our current events but our history as well. Moments centered around these topics include the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movements and Occupy Wall Street, to name a few. The bill further forbids the education of both critical race theory and critical legal theory: two widely-recognized frameworks that dictate the impact that racist policy has had on America’s many social and legal systems. Gerrymandering, red-lining, Jim Crowe laws and the extra-judicial practice of lynching make up just a few inexcusable examples of the practices that the CHARLIE Act seeks to sweep under the rug.  

Beyond race, the bill lays a heavy hand on the LGBTQ+ community, considering them to be an ideology that promotes a Marxist threat to The Constitution and The United States of America. It is a struggle to see how a minority community could exist as a political ideology, but the bill seems to account for this error in definition: by its own bizarre admission, the LGBTQ+ community simultaneously doesn’t exist at all! In fact, the recognition of it in New Hampshire classrooms is now illegal — alienating a population that makes up nearly 10% of Americans. The act further forbids the education and prevention of identity-based harassment, ignoring the fact that bigotry makes up the vast majority of bullying in schools.  

It is not just the education of students that is hampered by this act. The bill lays a heavy penalty for even the smallest infractions of its laws against educators. An offense as minor as a math teacher using arithmetic to teach the value of sharing is now punishable with up to a $10,000 dollar fine and the removal of an educator’s teaching license. The punishment is an odd choice in the face of gaping teacher shortage across the nation — including in New Hampshire. Faced with such measures, it is hard to imagine new teachers flocking to work in a state that restricts their academic freedom. Far beyond a mere pain-in-the-neck, the CHARLIE bill promises instead to ruin its teacher’s livelihoods and careers — all in the name of creating a supposedly “neutral” classroom environment that prepares students for “productive citizenship.” That alone, however, begs the question of how teachers can prepare students for such goals if they are forbidden — explicitly — from teaching critical thinking and critical consciousness. Indeed, the language of the bill seems to instead seek allegiance to the tenets of far-right conservatism by preventing education that fosters critical thinking to the contrary. The only logical conclusion can be that the new law is little more than a tool of propaganda in the New Hampshire Education committee’s attempt at the creation of a truly dystopian school system. 

The CHARLIE bill serves as an unfortunate reminder of the impact one man can have on the world — that the hateful legacy of one self-glorified political influencer and his zealous disciples can tip the scales of education and free speech away from the countless generations of those that have worked towards the common good of their students. I cannot help but feel pity for the state — despite being ranked at #8 in education nationwide, it has already begun to suffer. Enrollment in the state’s public schools have dropped significantly in the past year. With any luck, our federal court system will strike down this act –– as they did with New Hampshire’s similarly biased 2021 “Divisive Concepts” Bill. If not, America will be given a stark example of what will happen to the rest of its schools if the proper precautions are not made.