House bill attempts to prohibit college level social justice courses

A bill designed to eliminate social justice and ethnic studies courses at the college level has been killed.

According to the Arizona Capitol Times, Arizona Representative and the Chairman of the House Education Committee, Paul Boyer, killed House Bill 2120 on Tuesday.

Initially proposed by State Representative Bob Thorpe, the bill intended to eliminate social justice courses from all state universities.

Arizona Western College responded to the proposed bill.

Political Science professor Adam Ekins said a bill like this would create division instead of unity.

“The concern is that a bill like this could be used to limit discussion of issues that are already in the public,” Ekins said. “Everyone’s talking about them, of course we should talk about them.” Ekins said House Bill 2120 would have accomplished the opposite of what it originally intended, had it been approved by legislature. “Division is not what any of us are interested in,” Ekins said. “What we want to do in studying these issues and having these classes is to help others understand one another and to be more of a united country.” The Arizona Western College professor also said social justice courses within most classroom settings are essential. “I couldn’t talk about American politics without talking about issues of race,” Ekins said. “I couldn’t accurately [discuss] what happened with the most recent presidential election without talking about [alt-right]”