In February 2023, the Arkansas legislature filed Senate Bill 294, commonly known as the LEARNS Act. Within a month, LEARNS became the law of the land. It was a 145 page overhaul of public education that moved from bill filing to Arkansas statute before most Arkansans had a chance to even read what was in it.
The speed at which LEARNS soared through the legislative process was not an accident. For the past several years, education policy has been swift moving at the Capitol. After they’re passed, policies are slowly and unevenly absorbed by school districts, leaving families, teachers, and administrators to figure out how to educate Arkansas kids in an ever-shifting policy environment.
Making the grade
The pattern is most evident in how the Department of Education’s assigns grades to individual schools. The state doles out A-F ratings that are based on test scores, school growth, and a handful of other measures. The grade is supposed to signify the overall health and quality of the school. Over time, the results have tracked closely with income and demographics. Specifically, it means that schools serving higher concentrations of low income students and students of color are far more likely to land at the bottom of the grading scale.
And these grades labels do not sit on a report card and stay there. Letter grades carry real weight for districts and ultimately shape how communities view their schools, and critically, how funding is distributed. For example, in one annual round of reward funding tied to the grading system, only a tiny share reached schools in the Arkansas Delta. The bulk went to more economically advantaged areas, like Bentonville. This result is what the formula is unfortunately designed to produce.
The voucher problem
Then came the onslaught of new policies through the LEARNS Act. Unsurprisingly, lawmakers expanded vouchers universally (called Educational Freedom Accounts), allowing public funds to be used for private school tuition and home school expenses. At the same time, the law added and overwhelming number of requirements for public schools across staffing, instruction, performance, and accountability.
These two systems — “school choice” and standard public education — do not operate under the same rules. Public schools continue to carry the burden (an essential one) of state testing mandates, grading systems, federal compliance, and regulatory requirements. Voucher-funded private schools and homeschooling programs, however, are not held to the same standards. The state continues to tell families that they have options for educating their kids, but access to choice is entirely dependent on cost, location, and whether or not a school accepts their child. Per the latter, private schools are under no obligation to accept a student with a disability, for example, despite receiving state funding. How is this okay?
The throughline is not hard to follow; a grading system labels schools in ways that align with existing inequities. State funding follows those labels, and new programs redirect public dollars out of the same system while leaving its core obligations in place. Meanwhile, districts are managing teacher shortages and shifting state expectations. Public schools are constantly juggling a steady stream of new rules coming out of Little Rock.
What’s at stake
Those most are not tracking these steps as they happen, well all have to live with the results.
Extra Credit, a new video podcast by For AR People, connects the dots between these policy choices and the impact it has on our kids, our schools, and our communities. We follow the policy from the moment it is passed to the point where it shows up in a classroom. Each episode starts with something concrete — a bill, a funding decision, a court ruling — and then walks through who was behind it, how it plays out in practice, and what it all means for us as Arkansans.
Our host is Dr. Glen Fenter, a longtime leader in public education and workforce development. Dr. Fenter has spent more than three decades working in Arkansas public schools, including the Arkansas Delta. He cares deeply about education policy and how different conditions shape outcomes for students across the state.
Extra Credit’s conversations are direct and grounded in how the system actually works. Each episode, Dr. Fenter will host a guest with a unique perspective, expertise, or experience in how this all plays out. You will hear how a grading formula is built and why it produces the same patterns across districts. We’ll learn hear how voucher eligibility expands and who is positioned to use it. And we’ll cover what public schools are required to do under state law and what falls outside those requirements.
This podcast isn’t mean just for people with kids in public school or people who work in public education. Extra Credit if for anyone that lives in a town with a public school, that pays taxes, or that votes into office the people writing these laws. There’s no need for you to read through 145 pages of education policy. That’s our job. We hope that your job is simply to listen, engage, and share what you’ve learned. Join us.
