Arkansas is poised to enroll in the ranks of West Virginia, Arizona, Utah and Iowa as states that recently passed universal voucher measures, with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ schooling proposal one step closer to passing.
Senate Bill 294 passed smoothly in the Arkansas House of Representatives on Thursday by a vote of 78 to 21 and will go to the Senate this week to vote to amend the bill. If approved, which is likely, the bill will be sent to the governor’s workplace. for promulgation.
While voucher systems exist in states across the country in addition to Arkansas, the Republican governor’s voucher proposal would eventually be open to all Arkansas students. attending a personal or home school.
In January, the Utah and Iowa legislatures passed universal school screening legislation that would tie state dollars to students’ education, allowing them to spend the cash on private or charter schools. Arkansas’ bill followed an effort in Arizona, which approved an expanded voucher program. last year.
Robert Enlow, president of Ed Choice, an Indianapolis-based voucher education nonprofit, said school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic have helped catalyze a new national push for what he called a “personalization model” in education.
With many students sitting at home following classroom instructions via Zoom, the fun made parents realize they need more about their children’s education, Enlow said.
“I think the pandemic actually has something to do with it,” he said. “It’s not about choosing the school, it’s about educating the possible options [for families]. “
Arkansas already has a limited school selection program, the Succeed Scholarship, which provides state investment to students with disabilities or in foster care or children of a serving military member.
The LEARNS voucher program, called educational freedom accounts, will be rolled out gradually over 3 years, starting with the 2023-2024 school years. Students who get an educational freedom account will get 90% of the state investment consistent with last year’s students. For the 2022-2023 school year, state investment consisting of $7,413 student investment.
In the first year of the program, educational freedom accounts will be open to students eligible for the Succeed scholarship, who are in kindergarten for the first time, and those attending an F-rated school. In the current year, the program will be open to academics educated at a D-rated school, and in the third year, it will be open to all who are eligible in a public school.
Educational freedom expenditures would charge $46. 7 million in the first year, and the state forecasts that 7,000 scholars would be in the program in the first year. tax study through the Arkansas Department of Education. Robert Brech, deputy director of budget at the Department of Finance and Administration, said the program will charge the state about $175 million in the third year.
The omnibus bill limits the number of students eligible for a Freedom of Education account, with 1. 5 percent of overall enrollment in public in the first year and 3 percent in the current year. In the third year, when the program is open to all academics, “there will be no limitation on student participation in the Arkansas Children’s Education Freedom Account program,” according to the bill.
If the number of scholarship recipients applying for vouchers exceeds the amount the state has set aside, the Ministry of Education will identify the rules enacting the precedence of scholars.
The Ministry of Education’s financial study did not include projections on the number of students who would enroll in the third year of the program when all public school students were eligible. However, Enlow said enrollment in voucher systems tends to grow. exponentially to come with 4% to 6% of the state’s student population.
Enlow said Ed Choice consulted with Arkansas lawmakers and governors who drafted the LEARNS Act.
For the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, Sanders’ school selection initiative is not a new solution to an old problem, but an ongoing ideological struggle over public schools.
“This was proposed in Arkansas, and it was always rejected because of the legislature’s help for their rural schools,” said Mary Kusler, senior director of the Association for Advocacy and Policy. “We also know that this is an ideological purpose for many, for many right-wingers. . . We see elected leaders making it their big firm. “
While some states have passed universal voucher systems in recent years, states like Idaho and South Dakota have rejected expanded school selection systems.
Like the Arkansas bill, Utah’s school voucher bill includes raises for teachers. Teachers in Utah will see their salaries and benefits add up to $6,000.
Sanders’ bill includes a $14,000 accrual in beginning instructor pay and a $2,000 accrual for instructors who already earn more than the proposed minimum of $50,000 per year.
Kusler said lawmakers had included popular proposals such as higher salaries for teachers to make unpopular concepts more palatable to voters.
“The only way they were able to have a good time, or in the procedure [of visiting] Arkansas, is because they attached it to anything that has bipartisan support, [like] stepping up and supporting our educators,” Kusler said.