‘No Arkansas Tax Dollars Have Gone Toward’ School Counselor Association Criticized for Promoting DEI, Gov. Sanders Says

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders clarified Monday that no Bear State tax dollars supported a school counselor association that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion, after The Daily Signal inquired about military branches—including the Arkansas Air National Guard—sponsoring an annual convention.

“Governor Sanders has rooted out critical race theory and other divisive ideologies from state government since taking office, including signing an executive order banning critical race theory in schools on her first day as governor and signing legislation combatting critical race theory and divisive activism in both K-12 schools and higher education,” Sam Dubke, Sanders’ communications director, told The Daily Signal in a statement.

Dubke responded to questions regarding the Arkansas School Counselor Association, the state branch of the American School Counselor Association, which has faced criticism for supporting DEI. The nonprofit group Courage Is a Habit released a report last month exposing how ASCA’s official positions echo DEI. According to its website, the Arkansas chapter “adheres to the Code of Ethics and policy statements of” the ASCA.

Of the Arkansas chapter, Dubke said, “No Arkansas tax dollars have gone toward this group, and [Sanders’] administration is working to ensure the state does not waste taxpayer money on woke nonsense in the future.”

While the Arkansas Air National Guard appears as a “platinum sponsor” of the ArSCA’s annual conference for 2025, Dubke told The Daily Signal that the $2,000 for that sponsorship came from federal tax dollars, not the state’s coffers.

Alongside the Arkansas Air National Guard, the ArSCA’s website lists two other military branches as platinum sponsors: the Air National Guard and the United States Army Recruiting Command.

When asked about the sponsorships, an Army official stated that the Army is in compliance with policies and suggested that sponsoring the event did not violate President Donald Trump’s executive orders against promoting DEI or any other Department of War policy.

Promoting DEI

While the ArSCA does not mention its membership numbers, the ASCA claimed in 2023 to have over 43,000 members across the country.

According to Courage Is a Habit’s report, “Violation: American School Counselor Association,” the ASCA has repeatedly and systematically supported DEI, from “anti-racist” messaging to pro-transgender policies.

In 2021, ASCA adopted an “anti-racist practices” position stating that “racism remains a part of society in the United States and exists throughout all of our institutions.”

The policy calls on school counselors to “embrace their ethical responsibilities within roles as social justice advocates, leaders, and change agents” in order to “actively dismantle racist policies, procedures, and practices.”

While most Americans oppose racism, the “anti-racist” movement ASCA embraced relies on the teachings of critical race theory, an ideology that contends that America is institutionally racist, so Americans must fundamentally question all of society to find hidden racism and advocate radical changes to remove it. This leads to discrimination, in which Americans seek to redress historic injustices by elevating people from supposedly “oppressed” minority groups.

Other ASCA policy documents state that school counselors have a responsibility to “expand personal multicultural and social justice advocacy, awareness, knowledge, and skills,” and that school counselors “advocate for transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive students regarding access of building facilities.”

The ASCA Ethical Standards document stipulates that school counselors will “actively advocate for systemic and other changes needed for equitable participation and outcomes in educational programs when disproportionality exists regarding enrollment in such programs by race, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation,” and more.

The Courage Is a Habit report also notes that ASCA used materials from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s education arm, Learning for Justice, to craft student standards.

Specifically, ASCA modeled its Student Standards: Mindsets & Behaviors for Student Success and Student Standards Crosswalk on Learning for Justice’s Social Justice Standards.

The Southern Poverty Law Center—best known for putting mainstream conservative and Christian nonprofits on a “hate map” with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan—defends critical race theory and Learning for Justice advocates teaching about Black Lives Matter in schools.

ASCA’s most recent 2025 National Model for school counseling links to the ASCA Ethical Standards and Student Standards in a section on “definitions.”

Trump’s Executive Orders

Trump wrote in a January executive order on “ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity” that many institutions “have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ … that can violate the civil rights laws of this nation.”

Trump ordered “all executive departments and agencies to terminate all discriminatory and illegal preferences … and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.”

Trump issued another executive order on “ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling.”

His order directs the federal government “to ensure that recipients of federal funds providing K-12 education comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination in various contexts and protecting parental rights.”

The Courage Is a Habit report suggests the Department of War sponsorships for the ASCA annual conference violate both executive orders.

The Daily Signal reached out to the National Guard, the ASCA, the ArSCA, and the Southern Poverty Law Center for comment but did not receive responses by publication time.

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