A bill, sponsored by Senator J.D. Mesnard, aimed at protecting Arizona students in K-12 public schools from instruction that promotes racism, is headed to Governor Katie Hobbs’ desk for her signature.
The bill, SB 1305, which won the unanimous support of Senate Republicans, will likely be Hobbs’ 16th veto this legislative session.
According to Mesnard and his colleagues, Critical Race Theory, or CRT, offers a radical, leftist world view that evaluates people solely on the color of their skin and essentially defines everyone as either “privileged” or “marginalized” based on race or ethnicity. CRT is discrimination in the most basic sense and ultimately teaches that America as a whole is a racist country.
Senate Republicans say they support swift action against the harmful propaganda embodied in CRT that that believe is turning Americans against each other and instilling divisiveness among American youth.
“Teaching about historical movements, ideologies or instances of racial hatred and discrimination, including slavery and Jim Crow, are absolutely legitimate and sensible topics of study in the classroom,” said Mesnard in a press release. “However, pushing a destructive and racist ideology has no place in our schools. More and more parents are expressing concern over this issue, and we must ensure we nip this in the bud now before the damage is done on our impressionable youth. My colleagues and I in the Senate are calling on Governor Hobbs to sign this commonsense legislation.”
But Hobbs’ own history of discriminatory behavior has most Capitol observers expecting a veto instead of a signature.
In 2019, a federal jury awarded Talonya Adams $1 million along with a court order which required the Senate to give Adams back her job. The Senate leadership then challenged the verdict, leading to a trial and a significantly larger monetary award in 2021.
A federal jury reached unanimous verdicts in favor of Adams on claims of retaliatory firing and racial discrimination. The verdicts came with an award for Adams of $2.75 million in damages, although a federal judge reduced the award due to a law capping damages in federal discrimination lawsuits.
Hobbs, a Democrat who served as the Senate Minority Leader in early 2015, was called to testify at both trials. Evidence presented to the jurors showed Hobbs was aware of Adams’ claim of pay disparity, including the fact other policy advisors had received raises while Adams never had her salary increased despite working for the Senate nearly three years.