New teachers in Minnesota soon must "affirm" radical ideas about race and gender after a state education board updated its standards for licensing.

In April 2023, the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board — a panel comprising 13 members, at least some of whom have been appointed by Democrat Gov. Tim Walz — updated its Standards of Effective Practice, required of all prospective educators applying for their initial teaching license.

'You can’t force that kind of speech, you can’t require adherence to ideas that aren’t believed.'

The standards read like a manual written by far-left radicals obsessed with race and making repeated reference to gender ideology:

• "The teacher understands the diverse impacts ofindividual and systemic trauma, suchas ... racism, andmicro and macro aggressions, on learning anddevelopment and knows how to support studentsusing culturally responsive strategies and resourcesto address these impacts."
• "The teacher assesses how their biases, perceptions, and academic training may affect their teaching practice and perpetuate oppressive systems and utilizes tools to mitigate their own behavior to disrupt oppressive systems."
• "The teacher understands how ethnocentrism, eurocentrism, deficit-based teaching, and white supremacy undermine pedagogical equity."
• "The teacher ... approaches their work and students with [an] asset-based mindset, affirming the validity of students' backgrounds and identities."

Among the "backgrounds and identities" that new teachers must "affirm" include those regarding "gender, gender identity, [and] sexual orientation," the standards say.

These standards also affect Minnesota universities, both public and private, that offer teacher-licensing programs.

Doug Seaton, founder and president of the nonprofit Upper Midwest Law Center, told the Federalist that while some Christian universities in the state will object to training their students to "affirm" gender statements that run counter to their faith, most will comply or will sue only when the state forces their hand.

"Some are not willing to do it [file a lawsuit] until they actually have their college programs tagged for noncompliance or their graduates actually not licensed as a consequence of not adhering to these standards," Seaton told the outlet.

According to the Federalist, the new standards go into effect July 2025. Though the standards consider "religious beliefs" among its list of student identities, the gender-related statements violate the faiths of practicing Christians, Jews, and Muslims, effectively urging them out of the profession, the outlet noted.

By forcing would-be teachers to "affirm" statements that run counter to their religious beliefs, Seaton argues that the new Standards of Effective Practice are unconstitutional.

"They’re essentially requiring people to affirm these ideas that they don’t really believe, in many cases, as a condition of being a public school teacher or being part of a program to be a licensed public school teacher," Seaton explained to the Federalist. "You can’t force that kind of speech, you can’t require adherence to ideas that aren’t believed."

Since he was tapped to be Kamala Harris' running mate in the 2024 presidential election, Tim Walz's record of supporting far-left ideas has made national news. Walz is apparently so committed to gender ideology that he signed a law that implicitly compels public schools in his state to put menstrual products in boys' bathrooms, prompting the nickname "Tampon Tim."

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