AR Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders Signs LEARNS Act Into Law, Giving Students Universal School Choice
“I promised to be the education governor, and that’s why I prioritized it on day one, and today, that’s why I’m proud to be delivering”
We recently covered an education overhaul plan being advanced by Arkansas’ new Governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. This week, it passed the state House and Senate and was signed by Sanders.
It includes universal school choice, benefiting Arkansas students and their families.
Spencer Brown reported at Townhall:
‘Education Governor’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders Signs Universal School Choice Into Law
After her bold overhaul of Arkansas’ education system passed the state House (78-21) and Senate (26-8), Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed her Arkansas LEARNS education reform into law on Wednesday — fulfilling another key campaign promise she made while running in 2022.
At the official bill signing ceremony, Sanders thanked her state’s legislators for taking quick action on her education plan and said that, “When I put my signature on this bill and make it law, the failed status quo will end.”
Wednesday’s win for Sanders comes just eight weeks into her time as governor of Arkansas, debunking detractors’ claims about her ability to move the sweeping bill through the state legislature and proving she’s not in office to sit around and enjoy the benefits of being the state’s chief executive. No, Sanders is clearly making use of her position to work on the priorities she was elected to implement, and do so at a breakneck pace that doesn’t show signs of slowing.
“Since I announced my run for governor, I’ve heard from so many Arkansas teachers, parents, and students who are ready to change lives,” Gov. Sanders recounted before signing the bill. “There is no better way to do that then by fixing our schools,” she explained. “That’s why I promised to be the education governor, and that’s why I prioritized it on day one, and today, that’s why I’m proud to be delivering — along with my partners and friends in the legislature — on behalf of the people of Arkansas.”
This is a major victory for a new governor.
Arkansas made history today, setting the education model for the nation.
The failed status quo is dead, and hope is alive for every kid in our state! pic.twitter.com/ILX8LBMjSc
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) March 8, 2023
Naturally, there are critics of the new plan, and of course, the mainstream media chose to highlight that.
From ABC News:
Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs sweeping education bill, to praise and protests
In a major legislative victory for Arkansas’ new governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday signed the LEARNS Act into law, making the state the latest to adopt what she calls a system-changing universal school voucher program, which critics warn could decimate the public school system.
Sanders’ signature at the state Capitol in Little Rock comes 16 days after the 144-page bill was introduced.
“I am not interested in being a caretaker of the failed status quo. I vowed to be a changemaker for our people,” she tweeted ahead of the signing. “Today, I am delivering on that promise, and will sign into law my transformational education plan, unleashing a new era of freedom, opportunity and prosperity for all.”…
“I know it is not popular, I know it went against the Republican Party platform, but right is right and wrong is wrong,” said State Rep. Jim Wooten, a former public school teacher, questioning his colleagues’ support. “I would say that 50% of them are trying to get close to the governor, and the other 50% are afraid of her.”
The point is that this is all about the students, not teacher unions.
Arkansas is the 5th government school monopoly domino to fall in the past 2 years.
A school choice revolution has ignited and there's nothing the teachers unions can do about it.
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) March 8, 2023
Congratulations to Governor Sanders and the students of Arkansas.
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Comments
About time. In any other field, you wouldn’t do business with a business that is failing.
Anybody that claims that school choice, or having the funding follow the student would destroy public schools is making the patent admission that the public schools suck and nobody would choose them on merit. If that is true, then the entire system should be dismantled simply because only stupid people keep throwing good money after bad.
As Milton Friedman once remarked (and I am paraphrasing), just because education (elementary and high-school) is government funded doesn’t mean it has to be government run.
As we can plainly see, government run education via the public schools has become egregiously bad as well as in some cases a leftist propaganda machine for leftist lies.
“which critics warn could decimate the public school system.”
good.
“Decimate” reduces it by only ten percent. Not enough.
Giving teachers a raise, as if they earned it
I’d say it depends on the teacher.
I think it’s across the board
Granted, there are cities in the IS that pay their teachers so poorly that they qualify for food stamps
SE Texas for sure
Really, a down vote? My daughter was the principal of a SE Texas middle school and the teachers most definitely were paid so poorly they qualified for food stamps
In my area (rural Louisiana, north), teachers make enough to be well-off if both parents work, but rather poor on only one income. Teachers with about 10 years of experience will make around $50,000. If I only work on my contract days, which is true of most teachers who aren’t new teachers, then I only work for 149 days (10 sick days, no annual leave) because we are 4 days a week (8.5 hour days) . I compare that to somebody working about 265 days a year with, perhaps, 10 days of annual leave working 8 hour days for 5 days a week. It’s really hard for me to complain about my compensation for that. I’m just under $100,00k/yr if I work a “normal” amount of days (which I would kinda rather do).
Sure, if I want to compare my pay to a specialist or an engineer, then I don’t make as much. But, I don’t work as much either.
I’m not sure how I typo’d that. Just under $100K. My apologies.
Beautiful, another conservative governor showing the way forward… Federalism. Let competing ideas duke it out in the real world. Let people ‘vote with their feet.’ Let the good ideas flourish and the crap ideas get flushed.
There is absolutely no reason to tolerate top-down control from a shithole like Washington, DC. It can’t even keep it’s own house in order, why should we let it tell us what to do and how to live?
Exactly. Federalism is capable of solving many problems when the State leaders choose to employ it and when we stop demanding one size fits all solutions from Congress.
The payoff may be 10 years down the road, but it will be a wonderful thing to someday soon see high school graduates from Arkansas testing at the college level, and Columbia University graduates testing at the high school level.
Did Clinton do this much for Arkansas?