Asian American History education requirement closer to reality in Wisconsin

NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Asian American history may be an educational requirement in Wisconsin pending a full Senate vote.  The state Senate’s committee on education voted to pass a bill that would mandate the teaching of Asian American and Hmong American history in K-12 public schools.

Other states have introduced similar legislation in the last 20 years but this will be the first time it will move to a full-Senate vote. 

Although Asian Americans make up just over 3% of the population in the state, it has grown by 82% since 2000.  The state has a sizable refugee population especially those of Hmong descent. Hmong Americans make up the largest group of Asian Americans in the state at 29%. 

“It allows students who haven’t seen themselves in textbooks to feel safer and to be able to share their stories, and for there to be an understanding amongst students, teachers and administrators about the importance of Asian American stories in our history,” state Rep. Francesca Hong, who was among several lawmakers to introduce the bill in the Assembly. In total, there were 38 sponsors of the bill –26 Democrats and 12 Republicans.

Picture via Wikimedia Commons

The bill, SB240, adds “Hmong Americans and Asian Americans” to the list of those that school boards must include in the “instructional program information related to understanding human relations.”

Wisconsin would join several other states that have passed similar mandates, including Florida, Illinois and New Jersey.

Hong, who became the state’s first Asian American legislator in 2020, explained that it’s taken decades to get here. In 2005, lawmakers proposed a bill to mandate the teaching of the role that Hmong soldiers played in fighting for the U.S. during the Vietnam War and their resettlement. However, the bill never made it to the early public hearing stage, and similar legislation introduced in subsequent sessions was also unsuccessful. It wasn’t until recently that the importance of the Asian American community began to resonate, Hong said. 

“With me being the first and only Asian American legislator in the Legislature, I was able to leverage both the uptick of anti-Asian hate since the Covid pandemic, in addition to having my colleagues recognize how important, especially the Hmong and Lao community, have been to their districts and how powerful they are as a voting bloc,” Hong said. 

She added that there’s also been a great deal of momentum behind the cause from constituents. 

“After Covid, the AAPI [Asian American Pacific Islander] Coalition was formed. And so a big factor in why this bill moved forward is because organizing works,” Hong explained. “Students and families and teachers have sent letters, have done calls, have sent emails. We did roundtables. They have been advocating for this bill towards their legislators.” 

The historical lack of Asian American issues in school curriculums has had negative impacts on the state’s student population, Kabby Hong, an English teacher at the Verona Area School District, said. 

“Wisconsin is home to the third largest Hmong population in the country. And I wrote the word ‘Hmong’ on the board. I asked my students to write down anything you know about the word Hmong. And my students wrote nothing or ‘I have no idea,’” Hong said. “So 99% of my students knew nothing about Hmong people, about their culture, about their identity, about the fact that many of their teachers or counselors or fellow classmates are Hmong.” 

He added: “I think when you look at the impact of the law, it’s really about belonging.” 

The state Senate is expected to vote on the bill by early March and, if approved, send it to Gov. Tony Evers to be signed into law. 

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