Members of the House Education Committee took turns thanking and congratulating each other at a special Wednesday meeting, where they passed the Arkansas LEARNS bill even as they noted its shortcomings.

The 20-member committee voted by voice vote. The only guaranteed nos came from Democrats Vivian Flowers of Pine Bluff and Denise Garner of Fayetteville, who both shared their reasoning beforehand.

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Wednesday’s vote came after a 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. hearing yesterday, where more than 90 Arkansans came from around the state to testify. Most of them were educators speaking against the massive bill that will send public money to unaccountable private institutions that can pick and choose which students to let in. Diverting the state’s education dollars to vouchers will leave public schools without the money they need to serve the students they have left, they said. Proponents of the bill spoke of finding homeschools or private schools that were better fits for their children, and said public schools aren’t the best option for everyone.

Garner and Flowers both gave last-ditch speeches against school privatization before Wednesday’s vote.

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If improving education in Arkansas is our goal, we should do the things we know will work to improve education in Arkansas, Garner said. “Early childhood, universal pre-K, after-school, wrap-around services. Those are the kinds of things we know work to increase education and learning,” she said. None of these are included in the omnibus pro-charter and pro-privatization package.

What is most definitely included is taxpayer-funded vouchers, which are proven to boost segregation but not test scores.

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Rep. Denise Garner explained her vote against Arkansas LEARNS.

“I’ve asked over and over again for literature, peer-reviewed studies, for any information about vouchers working,” Garner told fellow committee members. “The only thing I’ve been given was from a conservative think tank.”

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Garner did her own research and found that 20 years of peer-reviewed academic studies from prestigious universities indicate vouchers don’t help and might hurt. By making opportunities available to students with the money and resources to bail on public schools but leaving those without behind, Arkansas LEARNS sets Arkansas up for lawsuits, she said.

Fewer than two full weeks will have passed between when Senate Bill 294 was filed and when it gets its final vote, Flowers said. It’s “problematic and unprecedented” that school administrators and Arkansas educators were left out of the bill-writing process on a piece of legislation that reshapes the Arkansas education environment completely.

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Choosing to not invest in public schools, but to instead leverage the negative rhetoric spewed all over Arkansas and the country, is a disservice to teachers and children, Flowers said.

Codifying a prohibition on the teaching of critical race theory looks a lot like trying to turn the clock back to a time Arkansas has worked hard to move past, Flowers said.

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“Both CRT and systemic racism exist. One is an academic theory and the other is a reality for many of the people you represent, and certainly for some of the people you serve with,” she said.

Rep. DeAnn Vaught and Rep. Vivian Flowers both spoke at the special Wednesday meeting.

Other committee members said that while they have fears and concerns about the bill, both because of the rushed process and the message it sends to public school educators, they are putting their faith in fellow Republicans who want them to vote yes.

Rep. DeAnn Vaught (R-Horatio) cried as she described her frustration with seeing teachers and school administrators “put into one container, shook and made to look exactly the same.” Proponents of Arkansas LEARNS have accused teachers of ineptitude, superintendents of dishonesty and public schools of inferiority in their push toward school privatization.

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Vaught has two daughters who are public school teachers. “I hate to think that we, as legislators, would dump on those who are heroes in my eyes,” she said through tears.

But like Rep. Hope Duke (R-Gravette), who expressed similar concerns, Vaught said she is “trusting the sponsor” and voting for the bill. This is a line we heard on the Senate side too, as Republicans who bristled at the high-pressure buy-now sales tactics used to cram the bill through fast said they would vote for it despite any misgivings “out of respect for the sponsor.”

Rep. Grant Hodges‘ (R-Rogers) praised the bill without reservation. He and his twin brother graduated from different high schools, he said, using this as an example of school choice. He did not say if those schools were public or private.

Rep. Bruce Cozart (R-Hot Springs), a long-time opponent of vouchers who has turned over a new leaf, said he thinks any faults in the bill can be fixed down the road, and that everything is fine. “I think this bill is a great bill,” he said. It’s a surprising endorsement after comments he shared with educators a couple of weeks ago, telling them, “The rich want vouchers. That’s who this legislation is for. The rich. They want it and they are going to get it. I am sorry but that’s just the truth.” 

Bill sponsor Rep. Keith Brooks (R-Little Rock) said the budget is there to pay for Arkansas LEARNS, and thanked people for their input.

“We’ve had a great opportunity to discuss a lot of things with passion and clarity, and I think the people of Arkansas are better for it,” he said.

The bill goes to the full House for a vote tomorrow, before heading to the governor’s desk.

 

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