White Indiana Education Chair Apologizes For Saying Black Students ‘Lack of Respect For Learning’ Is Behind Low Test Scores

An Indiana GOP lawmaker apologized for making a “hurtful” comment about the low test scores among African American students.

Chair of the House Education Committee Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, apologized on the House floor on Monday for crediting the low test scores of Black students to their lack of “respect for learning,” 13 News reports.

“I want to begin by sending an apology for any hurtful comments I might have said, I did say, last week in the education committee,” Behning said.

The comments came last week when Behning was defending HB 1251, a bill that will make changes to the state’s academic standards for all students; he cited a statistic that says only 30 out of 1,000 Black students in the Indianapolis Public Schools system passed both the English and math portions of the ILEARN exam last year.

“I would suggest that part of the problem is, and there’s a number of things, poverty impacts that for sure, having respect for learning,” Behning said. “All of, there’s a lot of things that come into play.”

Behning’s comment received backlash from groups like the College Democrats of Indiana and the Indianapolis Urban League.

“We don’t believe the apology is sufficient because it’s not grounded in action,” Mark Russell, director of advocacy for the Indianapolis Urban League, said.

Behning, a long-time chair of the House education committee, claimed that his words were taken out of context and were about Indiana’s broader academic achievement issues and not specifically Black students.

“I should have been clearer in stating what I truly believe to be the biggest obstacles to improving our children’s academic performance,” he told The Indy Star. “I sincerely regret my remarks have been hurtful to others, and I apologize for it.”

Behning claimed he only used the statistic last week for its “shock factor” to illustrate Indiana’s academic problem and was not intending to imply that only Black children lack a “respect for learning.”

“I definitely would not want people to take from my statement that it’s focused at one specific group of people,” he said.