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Sarah Huckabee Sanders' signature 'critical race theory' law is targeted for repeal [1]

['Daily Kos Staff']

Date: 2023-06-06

Arkansas organizers seeking to repeal a bill promoted by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders that purports to ban critical race theory in public schools got the go-ahead Monday to begin qualifying a referendum for next year's ballot. However, a separate law passed by Republicans earlier this year will make the task of collecting signatures to place the measure on the ballot much more difficult, though a pending legal challenge could strike those new hurdles down.

Sanders made national news in March when she signed the LEARNS Act, which she declared meant that "all forms of racism and leftist indoctrination in our schools will be outlawed." Among other things, the bill bans teaching students about “gender identity, sexual orientation, and sexual reproduction” before fifth grade. It also bars any discussion of critical race theory—without actually defining the term. (It's an academic framework for analyzing systemic racism, but the phrase is frequently brandished by conservatives to describe any conversation on race they find objectionable.)

The act also provides vouchers to help pay for students to attend private schools or be homeschooled, which opponents have charged would aid wealthy parents while undermining the public school system.

Nonetheless, the legislation overwhelmingly passed both chambers of the GOP-dominated legislature. State Rep. Jim Wooten, a former public school teacher who was one of the few Republicans to vote "no," argued that the bill sailed through due to a combination of sycophancy and fear. "I would say that 50% of them are trying to get close to the governor," he said of his colleagues, "and the other 50% are afraid of her."

A state judge recently barred the law from going into effect on a temporary basis, but Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin has asked the state Supreme Court to overturn that decision. And given the high court's conservative bent, opponents of the LEARNS Act are seeking a more permanent solution.

Under the state constitution, citizens unhappy with a law passed by legislators have the option of sending what's known as a "veto referendum" before voters, with a simple majority vote needed to repeal the legislation in question. Anyone looking to qualify such a referendum must gather petitions from about 54,000 voters, a figure that represents 6% of the ballots cast in the most recent gubernatorial election.

But there's a strict deadline: Signatures must be collected in the 90 days following the end of the legislative session in which the targeted legislation passes. This year, that clock began ticking on May 1, but Griffin had prevented the organization challenging Sanders' new law, Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students, from moving forward until now.

While CAPES had begun preparations many months ago, Griffin rejected its first two proposed ballot measures for what he claimed was “misleading” summary language. Finally, on Monday, Griffin accepted a new version with a summary stretching to almost 8,200 words, more than 10 times the length of the original.

In a letter to organizers, Griffin opined that their summary "essentially cuts and pastes from nearly every section of the LEARNS Act" and that he therefore "cannot conclude that it is misleading." However, he cautioned that the state Supreme Court "has repeatedly warned sponsors of statewide measures about their ballot titles’ length and complexity," though he noted that, when it comes to veto referendums, opponents can't control the length of the legislation voters will be asked to weigh in on.

Thanks to Griffin's delay, CAPES now has less than two months to collect petitions, which are due by July 31. Republicans have also sought to make the collection process much harder. In addition to the statewide signature requirement, the constitution specifies that organizers must gather signatures equal to 3% of the vote in the last election for governor in at least 15 counties. That's already a significant burden for any progressive measure: Just eight of the state's 75 counties voted for Joe Biden in 2020, meaning that activists must seek out supporters on conservative turf.

But that wasn't enough for Republicans, who passed a bill in March ramping up that requirement to 50 counties. Even if organizers were to target just the "bluest" counties in the state, that would include places like Van Buren County, which voted for Donald Trump by a 77-20 margin.

Voting rights advocates charge that this effort to make the geographic distribution requirement more onerous violates the state constitution, which they say represents a ceiling rather than a floor that can only be altered by a constitutional amendment. In fact, less than three years ago, Republicans did try to amend the constitution to triple the number of counties required to 45, but voters soundly rejected that effort by double digits.

Undaunted, CAPES issued a statement following Griffin's decision saying it was "excited to move forward." If organizers can overcome the obstacles arrayed before them and qualify the referendum, then their task will shift to convincing voters to support the repeal effort. No public polling yet exists on the matter, and ballot measures are typically challenging to survey accurately, but it's likely we can expect a major battle if the referendum does indeed go before voters next year.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/6/2173633/-Sarah-Huckabee-Sanders-signature-critical-race-theory-law-is-targeted-for-repeal

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