Speaker 1: Arkansas is now proudly and defiantly led by new Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders,
the daughter of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
And she is wasting no time.
My friends, she has gone right to the heart of the matter of what is most creating a problem
for the state of Arkansas.
She is banning critical race theory in K-through-12 schools, which is not taught in Arkansas in
K through 12 schools.
Huh?
Wait a second.
Isn't.
I'm not sure.
Here is Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Fox News Sunday, the day before yesterday, and she
is asked about the A.P. critical race theory, a measure that she signed despite the fact
that it's not taught in schools and she had an answer ready.
Here is that answer.
Speaker 2: And we talked to her in the commercial about the fact that you're now growing up
in the are your kids will grow up in the house where you grew up.
Now that you're the governor, you have a different bedroom this time around, but it sounds like
your daughter is going to grow up in this space.
You did as well.
You hit the ground running this week after your inauguration.
A number of executive orders.
Some folks love them.
Some folks do not.
Let's talk about your critics reaction to some of these orders.
One of them is called Executive Order to Prohibit Indoctrination and Critical Race Theory in
Schools.
The House minority leader there in Arkansas, a Democrat, says this We can't support our
teachers if we alienate and insult them with headline grabbing executive orders.
She says CRT is not being taught in Arkansas schools.
Axios seems to back her up, they said.
Reality Check There's no indication that the college level courses taught in any Arkansas
public school.
So if that's true, why the executive.
Speaker 1: Order, right?
Small government.
Speaker 3: It's incredibly important that we do things to protect the students in our
state.
We have to make sure that we are not indoctrinating our kids and that these policies and these
ideas never see the light of day.
Speaker 1: Now, of course, a smart question here would be, do you have evidence that they
are being indoctrinated by critical race theory that questions not asked?
Speaker 3: We should never teach our kids to hate America or that America is a racist
and evil country.
In fact, it should be the exact opposite.
We know for a fact that the Federal Department of Education issued CRT guidance and policies
to every school district in the country.
Our job is to protect the students, and we're going to take steps every single day to make
sure we do exactly that.
And that's the reason I signed the executive order.
I'm proud of the fact that we're taking those steps and we're going to continue to do it
every single day that I'm in office.
Speaker 2: Can teachers, though, still have the uncomfortable conversations about the
sins of our past, about the things this country has gotten wrong?
Speaker 3: Our teachers absolutely need to teach our history, but they shouldn't teach
our kids and our students ideas to hate this country.
Speaker 1: And of course, they are not being taught that we must protect our students vulnerable
children from things which are not being taught to them.
And this is actually a classic of the American right wing.
It's a classic of reactionary populism.
It's a classic of authoritarianism.
You invent a problem and then you solve it.
You put out the fire that you started, but in this case, it's a fake fire.
And in reality, it could be taught, though.
David.
It could be taught.
Oh, but it is not.
Now, there's there's sort of two big aspects to this.
One is they claim to be small government conservatives.
They are now passing laws against things that could happen at some point but aren't happening
right now.
Principle We are for limited government reality.
We are passing laws against things that aren't even taking place, not actually limited government.
This is why Sarah Huckabee Sanders ran for government for for governor to appear on Fox
News to spout right wing talking points and to claim to have solved problems that are
only problems in the minds of these very right wingers, because banning something that is
not being taught in school is a classic example of grandstanding.
And it is what Fox News is there for for these Republicans.
We're going to deal with the Eminem's that are the wrong gender and we're going to deal
with CRT, which isn't being taught, and you're going to call us heroes for doing it.
But I want to mention something else.
This is a huge disservice to Arkansas schools.
And what do I mean by that?
Look at Arkansas as rankings when it comes to education, they are in the toilet.
I don't know how many times they've been flushed, but they're in the toilet.
Arkansas is 44th in the country in high school graduation rate.
Arkansas is 40th in the country in overall educational quality, according to U.S. News
and World Report and according to Niche, it's 49th in the country in terms of overall educational
quality.
Arkansas is 44th in the country in terms of overall educational performance.
Arkansas is 45th in the country in terms of overall child.
Well.
Being, which includes other factors like poverty and food at school and all these different
things.
Arkansas is 47th in the country in terms of fourth grade reading proficiency.
Is banning CRT, which isn't being taught, going to help fourth graders know how to read?
Arkansas is 48th in eighth grade math proficiency, and according to the US Census Bureau, Arkansas
is 48th in the country in terms of median household income, which is highly associated
with educational outcomes.
Is banning CRT going to raise household income in Arkansas, which will improve educational
outcomes for kids?
No, they are banning CRT, which isn't taught there despite being close to dead last in
so many educational indicators.
This is a massive disservice to the people of Arkansas.
I hope they see it.
She never should have been elected and it.
I mean, listen, meanwhile, you look at how Connecticut and California and Massachusetts
and Illinois and other states are doing in education.
They're not banning critical race theory.
Math scores are up.
Reading proficiency is up.
Budgets are much healthier.
You know, it's it's the same old story.
It really is.
And Sarah Huckabee Sanders is now at the front at the forefront of it.