Teacher, students sue over Arkansas' ban on critical race theory
Source: Scripps News
Posted: 9:02 p.m. EDT Mar 25, 2024
A high school teacher and two students sued Arkansas on Monday over the state's ban on critical race theory and indoctrination in public schools, asking a federal judge to strike down the restrictions as unconstitutional.
The lawsuit by the teacher and students from Little Rock Central High School, site of the historic 1957 racial desegregation crisis, stems from the state's decision last year that an Advanced Placement course on African American Studies would not count toward state credit.
The lawsuit argues the restrictions, which were among a number of education changes that Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law last year, violate free speech protections under the First Amendment and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
It absolutely chills free speech and discriminates on the basis of race, the lawsuit said. Indeed, defendants brazen attack on full classroom participation for all students in 2024 is reminiscent of the states brazen attack on full classroom participation for all students in 1957, the lawsuit said.
Read more: https://scrippsnews.com/stories/teacher-students-sue-over-arkansas-ban-on-critical-race-theory/
SARose
(244 posts)In ya face, Sarah!
The Little Rock Nine
Ford_Prefect
(7,901 posts)legislation models to push this forward in so many states. The overall plan is to divide America in as many ways as possible by erasing our history so that it becomes impossible to question powers that be.
BumRushDaShow
(129,053 posts)offering red states a large variety of draft legislation/templates to use.
When they were "outed" a few years ago, a number of big corp. sponsors dropped out. But once the furor died down, I expect many came back and started the operation up again.
Ford_Prefect
(7,901 posts)subversion.
BumRushDaShow
(129,053 posts)(main reason why I brought them up - especially when you see multiple states using the same "template" )
Ford_Prefect
(7,901 posts)ancianita
(36,060 posts)The Charles G. Koch Foundation and Claude R. Lambe Foundation-- both are Koch Family Foundations that Charles Koch is centrally involved in.
Charles Koch is the CEO of Koch Industries, the "largest privately owned energy company in the nation."[17] Other groups it has funded include the Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Heartland Institute and the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.
The Koch Associate program of the Charles G. Koch Foundation also provides ALEC and other groups with Koch Interns and Koch Fellows. Some Koch Fellows go on to become ALEC staffers, such as Jonathan Williams, Director of ALEC's Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force.
Research from CMD and Greenpeace documents that the Koch foundations have given ALEC at least $600,000 in the past decade or so, and Koch Industries has donated an untold amount.
BumRushDaShow
(129,053 posts)and lots of threads here on DU about that. I found a couple from the period -
- https://upload.democraticunderground.com/10021214189
- https://www.democraticunderground.com/1014163140
Also found one where they supposedly morphed their subject matter -
https://www.democraticunderground.com/101499823
I don't know how many slithered back but I know back then, there was lots of celebration here to finally get a little bit of the knee off the neck...
ancianita
(36,060 posts)I remember that once Illinoisans complained about the insurgency of ALEC in the Springfield legislature, they got rid of it. It's been a stealth Koch/Mercer/Bradley project for decades.
Jimvanhise
(302 posts)The Government cannot restrict free speech. Claiming it cannot count as an education credit is just a sleazy way to get around that. "You can teach it but it won't mean anything" is underhanded. Come forward and state your objection. Do they even know what Critical Race Theory means? Tucker Carlson once admitted that he did not. This whole controversy was started four years ago when a white supremacist went on Tucker Carlson and revealed the existence of Critical Race Theory and called it a threat to America even though it was only taught in a few law schools as an extension course. A woman who specializes in that has offered to debate it with people but it is easier for Republicans to just yell about it and claim that it attacks white people.
Igel
(35,317 posts)even though it was only taught in a few law schools as an extension course.
But it's commonly taught, apparently, in public schools--enough that to ban something that's rarely taught is an extensive intrusion into free speech.
BTW, public school teachers while on the job have limited free speech rights. We are not free agents in many respects.