You know the old saying, the sure things in life are death and taxes? Add to that list: Drama whenever someone mentions parental choice in education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arkansas lawmakers hotly debated, then finally approved, an additional $32 million for Education Freedom Accounts for the current school year during their ALC meetings last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs for short) cover private school tuition or homeschooling expenses for families who opt for an alternative to traditional public schools. This year, around 44,000 students are using that option, and it has stirred up hard feelings among those pushing to maintain the public school status quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the past few months, homeschool parents have been routinely portrayed as potential fraudsters out to game the system. Lawmakers have raised far-ranging hypotheticals of all the ways a parent or child might somehow profit off of the EFA funds, which, by the way, are paid directly to the vendor \u2014 not to the parent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, if a child needs a homeschool curriculum, the parent submits a request to the state, and the state pays the company directly after review. The same process applies if a child needs a computer: the request is reviewed, then the state pays the vendor. Again, not the parent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator Blake Johnson pointed out that the state\u2019s Legislative Audit process routinely reveals instances of fraud and misuse of funds in public schools, yet no one seemed to be concerned about those issues. Instead, the focus has been on portraying homeschool families in a negative light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s fair for us to ask questions to superintendents and school board members across our state about what changes they\u2019re making to ensure that when kids walk out their door in 12th grade that they can read and get a job and be successful in life. And those are the questions I wish we were asking more of in here instead of pounding on a program that we overwhelmingly voted to approve and said that we would fund,\u201d said Senator Breanne Davis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Representative Jim Wooten, a perennial opponent of the LEARNS Act, portrayed the continued funding of private and homeschooling as an attack on public schools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut the problem is, how do you address the federal court demand of adequacy, which says we\u2019re not putting enough money into public education?\u201d Representative Wooten asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator Davis pointed out that the legislature \u2014 including Representative Wooten \u2014 determines how much funding goes to public schools. And she noted that the EFA funds don\u2019t impact the amount of money going to public schools at all. EFA funding is separate from, and in addition to, traditional public school funding. In fact, the legislature increased funding for public schools at a higher rate per pupil since 2023 (in and after the LEARNS Act) than it had at any point from at least 2005 through 2023, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator Davis said the legislature increased adequacy funding by 3.22% in 2023, \u201cwhich, from my understanding, is the largest percentage increase that we have given since 2005.\u201d She said the legislature provided 2.48% each year, which is still larger than the largest percentage increase before the LEARNS Act was passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the last three years, we have put historic investment of funds into public schools to ensure that even if they\u2019re losing students, they are not going to see a drop in funding to ensure that, though they\u2019re educating fewer students, they still have money to make the decisions because we have a funding formula, not a spending formula,\u201d Senator Davis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Courtney Salas Ford from the state\u2019s Department of Education also clarified the impacts:
\u201cWe want to make sure that all parents and students have the choice for their student that they feel is best, but it\u2019s not taking money from public schools. You all fully fund the public adequacy fund, the public school fund that goes to public schools that you all have determined is the amount that they need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So if students leave because they have a choice, that\u2019s not something we\u2019ve done. We\u2019ve offered them a choice because we feel they should be able to make that choice for their students. But that\u2019s not us costing the public school money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were also concerns about the number of students using EFAs, which Representative Frances Cavenaugh said blew away initial estimates. She said that legislators were initially told that 28,000 EFA enrollees would have been a high water mark. Now, it\u2019s at 44,000 and growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI support the education funds. I mean, people need to go where they can best get their child educated. But in the same breath, I\u2019m going to say we do have a budget. We do have limited funds,\u201d said Representative Cavenaugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That 44,000 breaks down to around 28,000 in private schools and around 17,500 students that homeschool. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vote, as you might imagine, wasn\u2019t without complications. The original motion was to approve the funding with adoption of the overall report from the Peer Subcommittee. Senator Jimmy Hickey made a substitute motion to pull the EFA part out of the broader report and vote on it separately. Representative Jim Wooten immediately made a substitute motion to the substitute motion (yes, that\u2019s a thing) to pull out the $32 million altogether, i.e., deny the funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Representative Ryan Rose<\/strong>: \u201cMy belief is that we need to stop characterizing children and families who are making the best education decisions for themselves in a negative light. Providing options for students and families to be in the best educational setting for them is a good thing for Arkansans. It\u2019s a good thing for families. It\u2019s a good thing for kids. And for us to characterize it as a bad thing, I think is a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Representative Andrew Collins<\/strong>: \u201cThis is a money pit. And with any welfare program, once you start, it\u2019s very hard to put that genie back in the bottle and roll it back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senator Blake Johnson<\/strong>: Arkansas is spending more on education\u2013 private, home, and public than it ever has. And I\u2019m tired of being 48th or 49th in education\u2026 And we need to support this system because it\u2019s about the kids. It\u2019s not about an institution of public education. It\u2019s about education of the students of the state of Arkansas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senator Jim Dotson<\/strong>: \u201cA vote against this is hurting students. It\u2019s not funding public schools. It\u2019s not defunding public schools. There\u2019s not one penny less or more that a public school will receive based off this vote. If we do not fully fund this, this will damage the educational ability, the ability of parents to fund their students\u2019 education for the remainder of this school year. Let\u2019s have the debate next year on whether or not you want to fund the program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After debate, Representative Wooten\u2019s substitute-to-the-substitute motion roundly failed. Next up, Senator Hickey\u2019s substitute motion also failed. Finally, the original motion to approve the full report, including the $32 million EFA funding, was passed. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When \u201cParental Choice\u201d Enters the Room, the Temperature Rises You know the old saying, the sure things in life are death and taxes? Add to that list: Drama whenever someone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[385],"tags":[26,36,108],"city":[],"class_list":["post-463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-alc","tag-education","tag-efa-accounts"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n