The Arkansas state legislature s first foray into education vouchers was in 2015, when it created the state-funded Succeed Scholarship for children with disabilities. Launched the following year, the program currently gives parents nearly $7,000 per year to help send an eligible child to a private school. Not a single legislator voted against the bill, a rare achievement for school choice legislation in a state where public schools have historically gotten bipartisan support.
In the program s first year, it funded just 23 students. Today, it s assisting 479 students and costing the state $3.3 million a year, according to the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE). Eligibility has been expanded to include some children in the foster care system. The scholarships are administered by ADE and the Reform Alliance, a nonprofit group funded in part by the Walton Family Foundation, a lead backer of school choice reforms in Arkansas.
2021 Arkansas legislative nightmare: lawmakers stick it to their own constituents Kasten Searles
A year into a pandemic that stole jobs, lives and any sense of stability, Arkansans might have hoped for some help when lawmakers convened in January for the 93rd General Assembly. What they got was a kick in the face.
Untethered by any check or balance on their hefty Republican supermajority, extremist lawmakers spent their time belittling and attacking their own constituents. For transgender children, renters, would-be voters, pregnant women or public safety advocates, Arkansas senators and representatives refused aid, offering insults and punishments instead.
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A few football fields to the right of
Credit Arkansas Senate
A bill that could have allowed public and open enrollment charter schools to place limitations on teaching certain aspects about racism failed in a Senate committee on Monday.
By a vote of 4-3, the Senate Education Committee did not get the five votes needed to advance House Bill 1761.
The legislation, which underwent significant changes through an amendment process, would have given schools the ability to prohibit materials, lessons or teachings on racism that fell under a list of five ideas. Those included that an individual from any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or that the United States as a whole is systemically racist.
An 11th-hour run to fix illegal state freeway spending fails on Senate floor
April 26, 20212:39 pm
I wrote back in January about a bill by Sen. Mark Johnson to hold the Arkansas Department of Transportation for spending 10s of millions on expanding freeways when a highway sales tax was limited to spending on four-lane highways.
He made a run at it today, but failed 9-17, with seven not voting and two voting present. Several senators seemed reluctant to pass something that would allow the legislature to override the vote of the people.
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Johnson’s bill proposed to amend the Constitution which he argued is allowed by a two-thirds vote on popularly approved amendments to legalize money spent under Amendment 91 on the I-30 and I-630 widening projects and also allow such spending on the new permanent sales tax for highway spending.
Credit where due: Democrat minority turns back creationism and cruelty to transgender children in Senate committee arktimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from arktimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.