The thing that is different today from before is that now instead of the situation I had where I was

encouraged to talk about issues in the country so that we could grapple with race in America,

there's a fear of being fired, of being demonized, of being ostracized, completely

delogitimized in your teaching profession and potentially being sued in civil court.

Hello and welcome to the 538 Politics Podcast. I'm Gailan Drewke and for those of you watching

this podcast, yes, we are finally back in our studio. Although don't worry, if you miss my

apartment, we will still be back there often enough. Alright, the podcast today. Since January 2021,

11 states have passed some version of anti-critical race theory law and close to 200 bills have been

introduced in 40 states. Also, last fall, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkins win was credited in part

with a parental backlash that included concerns about CRT. But what are these laws actually doing?

What is the impact both in the classroom and at the ballot box of laws that regulate how teachers

can talk about race and racism? And why has this become such a focus of our politics? That's what

today's episode is all about and here with me to discuss is Director of the Fellows Program

at the Brennan Center for Justice, Theodore Johnson. He's a writer at the Bullwark and recently

wrote on this topic for 538. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me. Good to be here.

So what does the landscape across the country look like right now? I mentioned that 11 states have

passed some kind of anti-CRT law, but of the nearly 200 bills otherwise. Are many of them likely to

also become law? So no, there's been as you mentioned something like 185 laws introduced in 40 states

across the country since January of 2021. The last time we looked at this, which is just over a week

or so ago, about 80 plus of those bills were pending in the states now. And of those 80, 12 have passed

and one of the ones that passed was in Arizona that was sort of repealed by the Arizona Supreme Court.

So we've got 11 standing laws and just over 80 pending laws. Now these are only the ones that are

...