A bill that was passed by the Iowa House and Senate would ban certain divisive concepts from training programs.

House District 47 Representative Phil Thompson says the legislation would ban essentially critical race theory from any training in public schools, universities or governmental entities. Thompson points out critical race theory is labeling someone as inherently racist or sexist based on their race or sex. However, Thompson notes the bill doesn’t prevent such topics from historical events being taught in the classroom.

“We’re just saying, you can’t tell a student that they are inherently racist or they’re inherently sexist purely based on their race or their sex. But yeah, we can still the discussions, we can still have these tough discussions, we can still talk about our scarier parts of U.S. history, we can still have those conversations, and that’s explicitly allowed in the bill.”

Thompson says the bill is similar to an executive order that former President Donald Trump signed last September on diversity training. The bill is awaiting Governor Kim Reynolds’ signature to become law.