A federal judge has ruled that Arkansas cannot prevent two high school teachers from discussing critical race theory in class, but he stopped short of blocking the state more broadly from enforcing a ban on “indoctrination” in public schools.
U.S. District Judge Lee Rudowski late Tuesday issued a narrow preliminary injunction against the ban, one of several moves in the education overhaul signed into law by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last year. One of the changes.
Arkansas Department of Education challenges CRT, requiring public schools to hand over data
The ban is being challenged by two teachers and two students at Little Rock Central High School, the site of the 1957 desegregation crisis.
In his 50-page ruling, Rudowski said the state’s argument made clear that the law did not outright “prevent the teaching, use or reference in classroom instruction of any theory, idea or ideology.”
His ruling prohibits the state from disciplining teachers who teach, mention or discuss critical race theory — an academic framework that dates back to the 1970s and whose core idea is that racism is embedded in state institutions. The theory is not a fixture in K-12 education, and Arkansas’ ban does not define what critical race theory is.
Rudowski said that while the scope of his ruling was narrow, “Section 16 does not prohibit teachers from teaching, using or referring to critical race theory or any other theory, ideology, and this should make teachers across the state (and their students)” or ideas, as long as teachers do not force students to accept such theories, ideologies, or ideas. “
Rudowski said his decision would still prohibit teachers from taking steps such as grading students based on whether they accept or reject a theory or giving preferential treatment to students based on whether they accept a theory.
On Monday, August 24, 2020, students traveled to Little Rock Central High School for the first day of classes in the Little Rock School District. A federal judge ruled Tuesday, May 7, 2024, that Arkansas cannot prevent two high school teachers from discussing critical race theory in class, but stopped short of more broadly blocking the state from enforcing its ban on “indoctrination” in public schools. The ban is being challenged by two teachers and two students at Little Rock Central High School, the site of the 1957 desegregation crisis. (Tommy Mate/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via AP)
Both the state and teachers’ attorneys claimed the ruling was an early victory in ongoing litigation over the law.
“We are pleased that the court recognized that the plaintiffs made a clear constitutional claim,” said Mike Laux, an attorney for the teachers and students who filed the lawsuit. “With this honor, we look forward to continuing to prosecute this extremely important case.”
David Hinojosa, director of the Educational Opportunity Project at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and representing the plaintiffs in the case, said the ruling “essentially guts Arkansas’ classroom censorship law, rendering it virtually useless.” significance.
Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin said the ruling “simply prohibits doing something that Arkansas has never done.”
“Today’s decision confirms what I have said all along. Arkansas law does not prohibit teaching the history of segregation, the civil rights movement or slavery,” Griffin said in a statement.
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The lawsuit stems from the state’s decision that advanced placement courses in African American studies will not count for state credit during the 2023-2024 school year. The teachers’ lawsuit claims the state’s ban is too vague and forces them to self-censor what they teach to avoid running afoul of it.
Arkansas is one of several Republican-led states that has imposed restrictions on how race is taught in classrooms, including a ban on critical race theory. Educators in Tennessee filed a similar lawsuit last year challenging the state’s blanket ban on teaching certain race, gender and bias concepts in classrooms.
