Credit where due: Democrat minority turns back creationism and cruelty to transgender children in Senate committee arktimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from arktimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Credit Arkansas Senate
A bill that would have prohibited public schools and state-supported higher education institutions in Arkansas from requiring educators refer to students by their preferred names or pronouns failed in a legislative committee on Wednesday.
The Senate Education Committee, through a voice vote, did not have the support needed to advance House Bill 1749 to the Senate, where if it passed again, would have gone to the governor.
Under the bill, an employee of a public school or a state-supported university would not be required to use a pronoun, title or other word to identify a student as either male or female when it is inconsistent with the student’s sex.
Is a Democrat allowed to pass legislation that helps people vote? No.
April 22, 20214:30 pm
The question was asked and answered in the negative today in the Senate on SB 781 by Sen. Clarke Tucker, a Little Rock Democrat.
It enjoyed bipartisan support. It incorporated many suggestions from Republican Sen. Kim Hammer, architect of most of the Republican vote agenda bills this session, as well as other Republicans who worked on the bill.
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Its key element is simple equity. In adding new impediments to absentee balloting this year, Republicans eliminated the ability to correct minor errors detected in checking returned absentee ballots, particularly an ability to cure a failure to include in the envelope the newly required photo ID.
First Amendment assaults in the legislature to squelch talk of racism
First Amendment assaults in the legislature to squelch talk of racism
April 22, 20212:32 pm
A hurry-up completion of the legislative agenda has included passage of some junk, as you might expect.
The Senate this afternoon approved SB 627 by Sen. Trent Garner to “prohibit the propagation of divisive concepts.”
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This is cookie-cutter right-wing junk tried first in New Hampshire, where it was roundly criticized as unconstitutional. Who will decide what’s divisive as opposed to legitimate disagreement? Trent Garner? His bill is particularly aimed at squelching talk of racism and sexism.
Little Rock, Arkansas Today, the church/state separation watchdog American Atheists praised the lawmakers on the Arkansas Senate Education Committee who rejected the controversial creationism bill (HB 1701) in a 3-3 vote yesterday evening. The Arkansas House had passed this unconstitutional bill on April 7, drawing national criticism and condemnation.
Both Arkansas Department of Education Assistant Commissioner Stacy Smith and Senator Linda Chesterfield noted the impossibility of teaching a single creationist myth that isn’t based on a particular religious tradition. “There’s lots of creation theories out there [according to] different religions,” said Smith. Senator Chesterfield noted problems arising from Buddhist, Muslim, or Hindu public school instructors teaching their own creationist myths to Christian children.