Arkansas House Education Committee Passes LEARNS Act

Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders talks to reporters outside the White House in Washington, on April 29, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The Arkansas House Education Committee passed Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s education reform bill on Wednesday to create the Arkansas LEARNS Act.

Sanders unveiled Arkansas LEARNS in February, a bill that combines a raise in the minimum teacher salary with other changes including a voucher program directing public money to private schools.

The House initially began hearing testimony for House Bill 294 on Tuesday, meeting from 2:25 p.m. to 9:10 p.m., in which the panel heard from a variety of educators who opposed the voucher plan. 

The meeting was continued and adjourned the following day, with Republican state Rep. Keith Brooks delivering the closing speech to the panel.

“We are launching the best and brightest and most aggressive investment in the history of the state of Arkansas, but it is not where we’re ending,” Brooks said. “This is the beginning of our commitment as a state to our students first and to look everyone in the eye and say Arkansas will continue to lead in terms of education.”

Following the motion, many Representatives provided closing comments, the first being Democratic state Rep. Denise Garner.

“You’ve all heard many of my concerns about this bill,” Garner said. “In my opinion, if we are really interested in promoting education in Arkansas, we need to be doing what works—early childhood education, universal pre-k, and after-school summer school.”

Garner said she asked for peer-reviewed studies on information about vouchers working, saying the voucher element was the biggest issue with the bill.

“Many studies show that there’s a negative impact—vouchers do not support students with disability and it does exasperate segregation, skirt accountability and transparency, funds discrimination, and leaves underserved students and communities behind,” Garner said. “We are constitutionally bound to provide an adequate and equitable education to all Arkansas students. This bill sets us up for future lawsuits for failure to do that.”

Democratic Rep. Vivian Flowers also voiced concern, saying there were equity and equality issues with the bill, which states “no critical race theory or indoctrination.”

“Just in terms of CRT (Critical Race Theory) … I don’t know if any of you know what CRT is or systemic racism, but I’m here to tell you that both do exist,” Flowers said. “One is an academic theory and the other is a reality in the life of many people you represent.”

Flowers said to turn an eye to rhetoric policies and statements that want to erase theories that she said are central to the experience of Arkansans would “make you part of the problem.”

Republican Rep. Brit McKenzie said the bill was a “compromise.”

“I think that there are things that we can take back to teachers, we can take back to students, we can take back to our parents, we can take back to our administrators,” McKenzie said. “and albeit, it’s not the best bill, it is the best bill for our students.”

Many legislators continued to make comments and ask questions until the vote was held at around 3:30 p.m.

The 144-page bill, which was advanced by the Senate Education Committee on Feb. 23, will now head to the full House on Thursday.

The efforts of SB294 include a variety of major changes to the education system, many of which are under debate in the state legislature.

The bill proposes the minimum teacher salary to be raised from $36,000 to $50,000, as well as for all teachers to receive a raise of $2,000 the following school year, regardless of whether they are making the minimum or not. 

The state government, as proposed by the bill, will provide funds to help pay for the new minimum salary as long as the eligibility requirements are met.

Eligibility requirements include districts to revise teacher contracts by the start of the 2023–2024 school year, ensuring teachers work at least 190 days; districts being prohibited from incorporating terms into personal contracts that would provide employees with more rights than those stated in state law; and districts being open for in-person instruction for at least 178 days. In addition, the funds must be used for teacher salaries.

The voucher system, titled the Education Freedom Account, will create accounts for students to provide funds of up to 90 percent of the state’s annual per-student funding.

“In a three phased-in approach, the account would offer universal school choices to all parents by the 2025 - 2026 school year,” a summary statement from the House said. 

The third main element is the bill offers high school students the option of a career-ready diploma and requires students to complete 75 hours of community service before graduation, according to the summary statement from the House.

Many public officials have publicly endorsed the bill.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said in a tweet that Sanders is delivering on her campaign promise with Arkansas LEARNS.

“Setting the bar high through school choice, comprehensive early literacy and relevant ed-to-workforce pathways,” Bush wrote, “she will empower students w/ opportunity & have a lasting impact on families.”

If LEARNS is approved on Thursday, the measure will face one more vote in the Senate before Sanders will be able to sign it into law.