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.)