Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaking with attendees at the 2019 Student Action Summit. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
Arkansas students are asking Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to stop invoking their school to justify her conservative political aims.
The Republican governor recently unveiled the "Arkansas LEARNS" bill, which will increase public funding for vouchers to attend religious or home schools and limit classroom discussion about racism and sexuality, and Sanders cited Little Rock Central High School in her State of the Union address to justify some of that measure's aims.
“Down the street from where I sit is my alma mater, Little Rock Central High," Sanders said. "As a student there, I will never forget watching my dad, Governor Mike Huckabee, and President Bill Clinton hold the doors open to the Little Rock Nine, doors that forty years earlier had been closed to them because they were black. Today, those children once barred from the schoolhouse are now heroes memorialized in bronze at our statehouse."
“I’m proud of the progress our country has made," she added during the address, "and I believe giving every child access to a quality education – regardless of their race or income – is the civil rights issue of our day."
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Students at the history-making high school, which was integrated by nine Black students in 1957 over the strong objections of then-Gov. Orval Faubus, issued a public letter denouncing Sanders' policy and shaming her for violating the sacrifices of those students more than 65 years ago.
"Governor Sanders’ approach is completely antithetical to the values that Central High stands for," the students wrote. "As much as she tries to desperately cling to the legacy of our historic institution, we, as students of Central High, unequivocally reject her exploitation of our school’s achievements."
The letter signed by four graduating seniors accuses Sanders of trying to use public funding for vouchers to restore racial segregation and increase discrimination against Black and LGBTQ students by limiting classroom discussion and educational materials that discuss the issues they face as minorities.
"Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ LEARNS bill will usher in a new era of segregation in Arkansas, where middle and upper class white families take resources from public schools to escape to private ones, leaving marginalized kids with crumbling facilities, an antiquated curriculum, and teachers who are forced to prioritize their job security over the quality of their instruction," the students wrote. "Governor Sanders, as students of Little Rock Central High School, we refuse to accept your desecration of our past and corruption of our futures."