Arkansas schools defy Sarah Huckabee Sanders to offer African-American Studies: report

Several Arkansas school districts will continue to offer coursework in African-American studies despite pressure from state officials to drop the classes.

Five out of six Arkansas high schools that had planned to offer Advanced Placement African American Studies now say they'll go ahead with the class targeted by the state Department of Education at the direction of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and the sixth is still considering it, reported Arkansas Times.

"The Little Rock School District’s Central High, North Little Rock High School and the Academies at Jonesboro, along with the charter schools North Little Rock Center for Excellence and eStem High School, have all confirmed they will offer the course and calculate grades on the same elevated, 5-point GPA scale as other Advanced Placement classes," the publication reported.

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"A spokesperson for Jacksonville Public Schools, the sixth Arkansas district that planned to offer the course this academic year, said Wednesday that they were still in discussions with the Arkansas Department of Education and had not yet finalized their plans."

Education secretary Jacob Oliva, who had been instructed by Sanders to target “indoctrination” and “critical race theory," pulled the plug last Friday on state recognition of the course added to the state's system last year, and the department issued a statement Monday suggesting teaching the subject might violate state law.

Oliva had previously worked under Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Florida Department of Education, where he oversaw policy changes in schools under that state's so-called "Don't Say Gay" law, and he is tasked with implementing similar changes in Arkansas directed through a Sanders executive order and a section in her Arkansas LEARNS school voucher act.

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Colleges and universities set their own rules on accepting AP course credits, so Arkansas schools can -- and already do -- offer AP courses that may not count toward state graduation requirements.

The schools that committed to offering the AP African American Studies class are exploring options to pay the $90 test costs for the exam since Arkansas no longer will, unlike every other AP course.