Sarah Huckabee Sanders takes oath as Arkansas governor, bans critical race theory in schools
Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas took the oath of office Tuesday and issued a series of executive orders barring the teaching of critical race theory and imposing freezes on new government hiring and new state regulations.
At her inauguration in Little Rock, Mrs. Sanders pledged to make education reform a priority. Among her first actions was signing the order to ban what she called “the political indoctrination of Arkansas’ schoolchildren.”
“As long as I am governor, our schools will focus on the skills our children need to get ahead in the modern world – not brainwashing our children with a left-wing political agenda,” she said.
Mrs. Sanders, 40, is the state’s first female governor. A daughter of former Gov. Mike Huckabee, she also served as White House press secretary under former President Trump.
Her order on critical race theory states that “teachers and school administrators should teach students how to think — not what to think.”
“Critical Race Theory is antithetical to the traditional American values of neutrality, equality, and fairness,” the order states. “It emphasizes skin color as a person’s primary characteristic, thereby resurrecting segregationist values, which America has fought so hard to reject… It is the policy of this administration that CRT, discrimination, and indoctrination have no place in Arkansas classrooms.”
Critical race theory holds that a racial hierarchy permeates all aspects of U.S. society and has become so normalized that race-neutral laws and policies merely perpetuate racism.
Critics say it is used as a political indoctrination tool by the far left.
Mrs. Sanders said her administration will reward teachers with higher pay and “empower parents with more choices, so that no child is ever trapped in a failing school or sentenced to a lifetime of poverty.”
“Parents are the cornerstone of a good education,” the governor told the audience. “Our public schools do not belong to education bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. – they belong to you.”
She said schools should “get back to teaching reading, writing, math, and science” and also teach children that “the identity that truly matters is the one we all share: our identity as children of God and citizens of the United States of America.”
The new governor also pledged to work with the legislature to “responsibly” phase out the state’s income tax.
“We must keep cutting it, no matter how long it takes, until we eventually wipe the income tax off the books,” she said.
Mrs. Sanders succeeded Republican Asa Hutchinson, who left office after eight years due to term limits.
In her inaugural address, Mrs. Sanders said she will work to make the state a place “where jobs are abundant and paychecks are rising.”
“Our vision is for an Arkansas where precious unborn children are welcomed in life and protected in law,” the governor said. “Where citizens are free to think, free to worship, and free to speak in accordance with their own conscience. And for an Arkansas where government never looms larger than liberty in our lives.”
She said of the state’s new hiring freeze, “we are limiting the growth of government before government limits the growth of individual liberty.”
She thanked her parents, her husband Bryan, and their three school-age children.
Four months ago, Mrs. Sanders was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She said Tuesday that she is cancer free, “thanks to exceptional doctors right here in Arkansas, a successful surgery and the grace of God.”