全美有色人种协进会阿肯色州会议和民权律师委员会呼吁联邦法院针对阿肯色州的《扫盲、赋权、问责、准备、网络和学校安全法》(即《学习法》)颁布禁令。该法案旨在禁止公立学校教授多样性、公平和包容性以及批判性种族理论。LEARNS法案的支持者将这种教学描述为“灌输”。
周五，全美有色人种协进会加入了由美国广播公司首先获得的修改后的诉讼。最初的诉讼是由国家民权律师迈克·劳克斯于3月份在美国阿肯色州中区东区地方法院提起的。周五，全美有色人种协进会和民权律师委员会也提交了一份禁令申请，试图在诉讼进行期间阻止《学习法》的执行。
这一最新努力是全美有色人种协进会试图打击他们所称的全国反多样性、公平和包容立法浪潮的一部分。
该诉讼认为，阿肯色州公立学校教授的高级安置非裔美国人研究课程受到了不公平的待遇，与其他高级安置课程相比，这些课程被边缘化且资金不足。该诉讼声称，所谓的不平等既剥夺了学生了解非裔美国人历史和贡献的机会，又保持了一定程度的系统性不平等。
“我们拒绝回去。全美有色人种协进会将继续利用我们所掌握的一切手段来确保我们的宪法权利得到保护，我们的文化得到尊重。这就是代表社区的样子，”全美有色人种协进会总裁德里克·约翰逊告诉ABC新闻。
约翰逊补充说，“从阿肯色州到阿拉巴马州，对多样性、公平和包容性的亵渎对我们国家的未来构成了迫在眉睫的威胁。”
2023年1月，阿肯色州州长萨拉·哈克比·桑德斯签署了一项行政命令，禁止该命令所称的“灌输”和教授批判种族理论在阿肯色州的公立学校。
当时她签署订单桑德斯说，批判种族理论“与美国传统的中立、平等和公平的价值观是对立的。它强调肤色是一个人的主要特征，从而复活了种族隔离主义价值观，而这正是美国竭力反对的。”
州长补充说，“这是本届政府的政策，CRT，歧视和灌输在阿肯色州的教室里没有位置。”
两个月后，桑德斯签署了144页把行为变成法律。
学习法案允许阿肯色州教育部创造“加强流程和政策，防止被禁止的灌输，包括批判性种族理论，因为它涉及到员工、承包商和客座讲师或部门讲师。”
尽管这项立法遇到了阻力，阿肯色州最高法院还是做出了有利于该法案的裁决，称该法案在10月份通过时附带了一项有效的紧急条款。
新诉讼的原告包括阿肯色州小石城小石城中心高中的两名高中教师和两名学生。同一所高中是1957年美国最高法院裁决的焦点，该裁决在最高法院做出具有里程碑意义的布朗诉教育委员会裁决三年后下令整合美国的公立学校。
九名黑人学生，后来被称为“小石城九人”，随后被允许进入小石城中心高中。这些学生成了反融合暴徒的目标，促使时任总统德怀特·艾森豪威尔(Dwight Eisenhower)部署国民警卫队来执行法律和保护学生。
除了小石城中心高中在美国历史文化中的地位，它也是桑德斯的母校，现在它的大部分学生都是有色人种。
诉讼中的原告之一，Ruthie Walls，是一名研究非裔美国人的AP教师。根据诉讼，Walls -被任命为小石城中心高中2023-2024学年的“年度教师”-被该法案束缚住了手脚。
修订后的诉讼称，由于《学习法》(learnings Act)，Walls“现在出于对可能面临的惩罚的恐惧而自我审查”，她没有深入研究诸如吉姆·克劳法的影响和布朗诉教育委员会(Board of Education)的后果等历史性话题。修改后的诉状进一步说，沃尔斯担心《学习法》的影响会对她的学生在AP考试中的成功产生负面影响。
此外，该诉讼称，阿肯色州和阿肯色州教育部“清除了州政府提供的资源，包括来自NEA、马丁·路德·金研究和教育研究所以及塞尔玛在线的民权信息，但没有对删除做出任何解释。”
该诉讼进一步声称,“该州首选的1776年统一课程……可能被解释为通过洗白历史来破坏歧视和平等保护”
该诉讼还声称，一个州没有“不受限制的权力来强加给学校教师任何它选择的条件”，也不能禁止教授“基于违反第一修正案的理由的理论或学说”。
桑德斯在回应诉讼时告诉ABC新闻，“在阿肯色州，我们不会向我们的孩子灌输仇恨美国或彼此仇恨。可悲的是，激进左派继续撒谎，用我们孩子的未来玩政治游戏。"
阿肯色州的这起诉讼是全国范围内打击反多样性、公平和包容立法的最新一例。今年3月，在佛罗里达大学宣布计划解散其多元化公平和包容部门后，全美有色人种协进会致信敦促当前和未来的NCAA学生运动员重新考虑在佛罗里达州上大学。拆除是对佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯(Ron DeSantis)的《停止觉醒法案》(Stop WOKE Act)的回应，该法案与《学习法案》(LEARNS Act)一样，于2023年通过。
桑德斯在周三的国情咨文中表示，教育是她的第一要务。她在部分内容中说,《学习法》的第一年“针对的是我们州最危险的学生。但教育自由是每个人的，很快，教育自由账户也将是如此。”
后者指的是阿肯色州的一个项目，该项目允许符合条件的家庭接受公共资金，为他们的孩子支付私人或家庭教育费用。
桑德斯补充道，“教育自由是我们能为那些为了我们的自由不惜一切的人做的最起码的事情。明年的这个时候，我们将在阿肯色州历史上第一次拥有全民教育自由。”
她敦促州议会向她提交一份为《学习法案》提供全额资金的预算，她说她将签署该法案。
阿肯色州教育部部长雅各布·奥利瓦(Jacob Oliva)在自己的声明中告诉ABC新闻，“诉讼错误地指责艾德不允许学生参加AP非洲裔美国人研究试点项目，并剥夺了他们从该课程中获得的好处——这完全是一个谎言。教育部建议学校可以为完成试点的学生提供本地课程学分，有六所学校参与其中。
他补充说，“经过讨论，大学委员会更新了课程框架，并保证它不违反阿肯色州的法律。该部门批准了24-25学年的课程，并将继续与各地区合作，以确保向学生提供的课程不违反阿肯色州的法律。
民权律师委员会教育机会项目主任大卫·伊诺霍萨对美国广播公司新闻说:“应该允许学生了解真实的历史，而不是粉饰的版本。”“美国历史上最痛苦的章节不应该被埋葬，因为这让一些人感到不舒服。”
“坦率地说，阿肯色州强迫教育工作者审查他们关于种族主义的讨论，剥夺AP非洲裔美国人研究课程的所有好处，包括GPA的额外权重和潜在的大学学分，这是彻头彻尾的冒犯和不公平的，”Hinojosa说。
“毫无疑问，这些重写我们历史、将我们的领导人赶出教室、贬低我们文化的协同努力，是一种暗中企图，旨在逆转我们不懈努力取得的进步，”全美有色人种协进会总统约翰逊对美国广播公司新闻频道(ABC News)表示。
Exclusive: NAACP joins lawsuit against Arkansas LEARNS Act in attempt to fight anti-DEI efforts
The Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP and the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights are calling on a federal court to enact an injunction against the state of Arkansas over its Literacy, Empowerment, Accountability, Readiness, Networking and School Safety Act, known as the LEARNS Act, which is intended to prohibit public schools from teaching diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory. Supporters of the LEARNS Act describe such teaching as "indoctrination."
The NAACP joined the amended lawsuit, obtained first by ABC News, on Friday. The initial lawsuit was filed in March by national civil rights attorney Mike Laux in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas Central District. The NAACP and the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights also filed a request for an injunction on Friday in an attempt to prevent the LEARNS Act from being enforced as the lawsuit is being litigated.
This latest effort is a part of the NAACP's attempt to fight what they describe as a wave of anti-diversity, equity and inclusion legislation across the country.
The lawsuit argues that the Advanced Placement African American Studies classes taught in Arkansas' public schools have received inequitable treatment and have been marginalized and underfunded when compared to other advanced placement courses. The suit claims that the alleged inequities have both deprived students the opportunity to learn about African American history and contributions, and have maintained a level of systemic inequality.
"We refuse to go back. The NAACP will continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure that our constitutional rights are protected, and our culture respected. This is what standing for community looks like," NAACP President Derrick Johnson told ABC News.
Johnson added, "From Arkansas to Alabama, the desecration of diversity, equity and inclusion poses an imminent threat to the future of our nation."
In January 2023, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed an executive order to prohibit what the order describes as "indoctrination" and the teaching ofcritical race theoryin Arkansas public schools.
At the time shesigned the order, Sanders said critical race theory "is antithetical to the traditional American values of neutrality, equality, and fairness. It emphasizes skin color as a person's primary characteristic, thereby resurrecting segregationist values, which America has fought so hard to reject."
The governor added, "It is the policy of this administration that CRT, discrimination, and indoctrination have no place in Arkansas classrooms."
Two months later, Sanderssigned the 144-pageLEARNS Act into law.
The LEARNS Act allowed the Arkansas Department of Educationto create"enhanced processes and policies that prevent prohibited indoctrination, including Critical Race Theory, as it relates to employees, contractors, and guest speakers or lecturers of the department."
Although the legislation was met with resistance, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in favor of the law, saying that the act passed with a valid emergency clause in October.
The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit include two high school teachers and two students from Little Rock Central High School, in Little Rock, Arkansas. The same high school was the focal point of the 1957 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which ordered the integration of public schools in the U.S., three years after the Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision.
Nine Black students, who thereafter were known as the "Little Rock Nine," were subsequently allowed to enroll in Little Rock Central High School. The students became targets of anti-integration mobs, prompting then-President Dwight Eisenhower to deploy the National Guard to enforce the law and protect the students.
In addition to Little Rock Central High School's place in American history culture, it is also Sanders' alma mater, with the majority of its student body now comprised of students of color.
One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Ruthie Walls, is an AP teacher of African American studies. According to the lawsuit, Walls -- who was named Little Rock Central High School's "Teacher of the Year" for the 2023-2024 school year -- is hamstrung by the bill.
The amended lawsuit says because of the LEARNS Act, Walls "now self-censors herself out of fear of the penalties that she may face," and that she does not deeply delve into historic topics such as the impact of Jim Crow laws and the consequences of Brown v. Board of Education. The amended complaint further says Walls worries that the effects of the LEARNS Act will negatively affect her students' success on the AP exam.
Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that the state of Arkansas and the Arkansas Department of Education "have purged state-provided resources, including information on civil rights from the NEA, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, and Selma online with no explanation for the removal."
The lawsuit further alleges that the "State’s preferred 1776 Unites curriculum … could be interpreted as undermining discrimination and equal protection by white-washing history"
The lawsuit also alleges that a state doesn't have "unchecked power to impose upon the teachers in its schools any conditions that it chooses," and cannot prohibit teaching a "theory or doctrine where that prohibition is based upon reasons that violate the First Amendment."
Sanders told ABC News in response to the lawsuit, "In the State of Arkansas, we will not indoctrinate our kids and teach them to hate America or each other. It’s sad the radical left continues to lie and play political games with our kids’ futures."
This Arkansas lawsuit is the latest in a broader national effort to fight anti-diversity, equity and inclusion legislation. In March, the NAACP sent a letter urging Black current and prospective NCAA student-athlete players to reconsider attending colleges in the state of Florida after the University of Florida announced plans to dismantle its Diversity Equity and Inclusion department. The dismantling is in response to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' Stop WOKE Act, which, like the LEARNS Act, passed in 2023.
In her State of the State address on Wednesday, Sanders said that education was her first priority. She stated in part that the first year of the LEARNS Act "targeted the most at-risk students in our state. But education freedom is for everyone, and soon, Education Freedom Accounts will be too."
The latter is in reference to an Arkansas program to allow eligible families to receive public funds to pay for private or home schooling for their children.
Sanders added, "Educational freedom is the least we can do for those who put everything on the line for our freedom. This time next year, we will have universal education freedom for the first time in Arkansas history."
She urged the state Legislature to send her a budget that fully funds the LEARNS Act, which she said she will sign.
Arkansas Department of Education Secretary Jacob Oliva told ABC News in his own statement that "the lawsuit falsely accuses ADE of not allowing students to participate in the AP African American Studies pilot program and stripped them from the benefits that the course provides - a total lie. The department advised schools they could offer local course credit to students who complete the pilot, and six schools participated."
He added, "After discussions, College Board updated course framework and assured it does not violate Arkansas law. The department approved the course for the 24-25 school year and will continue to work with districts to ensure courses offered to students do not violate Arkansas state law."
“Students should be allowed to learn about real history, not a whitewashed version," David Hinojosa, director of the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, told ABC News. "The most painful chapters of American history should not be buried because it makes some people uncomfortable."
"Frankly, it’s downright offensive and unjust for Arkansas to be forcing educators to censor their discussion on racism and stripping the AP African American Studies course of all its benefits, including extra weight for their GPAs, and potentially earning college credit,” Hinojosa said.
"Make no mistake, these coordinated efforts to rewrite our history, remove our leaders from classrooms and degrade our culture are a covert attempt to revert the progress we've worked tirelessly to secure," Johnson , the NAACP president, told ABC News.
