One of the more controversial bills debated in the last session of the Alabama Legislature was HB 312, also known as the “divisive concepts” bill.
The most debated provision said the law “would prohibit public K-12 schools and public institutions of higher education and their employees from using or introducing courses of instruction or units of study directing or compelling students to adhere to or affirm certain concepts regarding race, sex, or religion.”
While the bill passed the Alabama House of Representatives, it never reached final passage in the Senate.
Wednesday on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program,” State Rep. Andrew Sorrell (R-Muscle Shoals) expressed his frustration about the failure of the legislature to pass what he called a “slam dunk” education bill.
“There is one bill that is just so obvious. It was such a no-brainer for a super majority Republican state to pass that didn’t get passed this year,” he said, “and I’m just left scratching my head. I don’t understand what happened, and that bill would be the Critical Race Theory bill.”
Sorrell, who is also currently running for Alabama State Auditor, explained how it seemed like the bill would eventually get passed and signed by the governor.
“Representative Ed Oliver had a really good bill,” he explained. “He did an excellent job presenting it on the floor. We passed that out of the House on a party-line vote, there might have been one or two Republicans who voted no, but basically a party-line vote, and we sent it up to the Senate, and the Senate promptly did nothing with it. They sat on it, and I don’t understand the reasoning.”
He said he was still confused about why the Senate was not able to move the process forward.
“I believe the Senate had even already passed a Senate version of the divisive concepts bill and sent it down to the House,” he continued, “but the deal was they were going to take the House version and pass it and they got up there and they didn’t. So we were just kind of left scratching our heads at the last week of session that it just didn’t get done.”
The state representative said there was no excuse for conservatives not making sure that bill passed in the Yellowhammer State.
“I mean that is such a slam dunk issue,” he argued. “I mean, the governor’s race in Virginia was won in part over issues like Critical Race Theory being taught in schools, and for Alabama not to pass that bill this year. I mean, I was beyond disappointed that we didn’t get it done.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
