Michigan Senate Unanimously Passes Bill Requiring More Genocide And Holocaust Education

The Michigan Senate unanimously passed a bill that would legally require Michigan schools to teach more about the genocide and the Holocaust on Thursday. Senate Bill 1075, which was sent to the House for consideration, would require students in Michigan to be provided with a full six hours of instruction on genocide. These instructional hours would include, but wouldn’t be limited, learning about the Holocaust. The six hours of genocide education would be presented each year to students between the eighth and 12th grade. It was proposed by Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville.

In addition to the genocide instructional hours, the bill would require Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder to form a council on genocide and Holocaust education within 60 days from when the bill becomes law, according to MLIVE. This council, which will be called the Governor’s Council on Genocide and Holocaust Education, would advise the Michigan Department of Education as well as local schools as to how to educate students about genocide and the Holocaust.

“People need to know why we fought in that world war and why we risked our lives for the lives of other humans,” Richardville said explaining why he proposed the bill.

He said that he was influenced to introduce the genocide and Holocaust education bill by his own experiences traveling to Israel and the Holocaust museum and memorial in Jerusalem, according to another MLIVE report.

“It’s one of the most incredible experiences you can go through, it really moved me a lot,” the state senator said. “It’s the kind of thing we all need to be educated about, because how can something like that happen?”

Earlier today, the Inquisitr reported that France has agreed to pay American Holocaust survivors who were transported to concentration camps in French trains and their heirs reparations. France’s state rail company SNCF transported 76,000 Jewish people to the camps during the Nazi-imposed genocide last century. The Inquisitr reported than only around 3,000 of those people survived the Nazi’s genocide plans. While SNCF expressed extreme regret, it is pointed out that during the period of Jewish genocide, France’s Nazi occupiers didn’t give the rail company much choice.

The genocide and Holocaust education bill that passed the Michigan Senate calls for all lessons to be age-appropriate and grade-appropriate. It also calls for the subject to be included in a standardized test called the Michigan Merit Exam. The genocide and Holocaust education bill amends the revised school code.

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