The Senate Education Committee moved three education measures to the Senate floor Wednesday, including a bill that would require all third-graders in the state to learn cursive writing.
House Bill 1044, by Rep. Kim Hendren, R-Gravette, requires that every school district teach cursive to third-graders. Cursive was taken out of the state's curriculum requirements when Arkansas adopted Common Core -- a set of math and literacy standards that have been adopted by most of the 50 states since 2010 -- although some local districts still teach the skill.
The committee also approved HB1183, by Rep. Bill Gossage, R-Ozark, which includes the governor's plan to require high schools to provide at least one computer-science course starting in the 2015-16 school year. It also approved Senate Bill 256, by Sen. Eddie Cheatham, D-Crossett, the first step in allowing the University of Arkansas System's new online-only eVersity to award certificates and degrees.
All three measures were approved in voice votes and will make their way to the full Senate next week.
Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, presented the cursive bill for his father, Kim. He said other legislators had already presented studies showing that learning cursive is good for children's brain development, but he also was concerned about young people not being able to read the country's founding documents, including the preamble to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. He handed out copies of the documents to the committee.
"I can't imagine taking a tour bus of junior high school kids to Washington, D.C., to the Smithsonian to go look at that document and them not knowing what it said," he said. "I know they can get electronic translations of it, but I think it kind of misses the intents and the magnitude of what happened here when those people signed that document."
Cheatham invited Hermitage Superintendent Tracy Tucker to speak on the requirements; her district still teaches cursive.
"Developmentally for our students, we don't start it until close to midyear ... and they spend anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes on it a day," she said.
Hendren said there would be no fiscal impact, and local districts would decide how to incorporate cursive into the curriculum as long as it was taught by the end of third grade.
The committee also quickly passed the governor's computer-education plan, which was presented by Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View.
The bill would require high schools to provide either in-person instruction or virtual instruction of at least one computer-science course by the next school year. It also would create a task force to develop standards and strategies for improving computer-science instruction in Arkansas, including classes on computer programming and coding.
Online courses would be offered through Virtual Arkansas, online instruction that is provided through a partnership between the Arkansas Department of Education and the Arkansas Education Service Cooperatives. If the bill is approved, the $2,500-per-district fee to use Virtual Arkansas as well as any additional costs would be waived for 2015-16.
"I think this should be called the Ella Beth bill," said Irvin, referencing a campaign commercial where Gov. Asa Hutchinson sits with his granddaughter, Ella Beth, and explains his plan for computer classes. "He listened to a personal situation going on with his granddaughter, took an interest in what was going on in her life and her experiences in her life and her education experience in schools, and developed a policy around it."
The committee also heard legislation that would allow the University of Arkansas System to offer certificate degrees in an entirely online program called eVersity. SB256 asks that the eVersity program be exempted from some of the requirements that campus-based schools have to comply with, including the requirement of immunizations of students and charging athletic or facilities fees.
"The university has done quite a bit of work on eVersity, as they call it. The university's board of trustees voted to establish it as a fully online university," Cheatham said. "It's workplace relevant. People who are working full time cannot go back to school full time. So they have the ability to take those courses online and maybe finish up a degree. In my opinion, it's designed for those that don't have the capability to go back full time but are within reach of some sort of degree or certificate."
Cheatham said about 14,000 Arkansans currently are enrolled in private online courses through for-profit universities. He said the University of Arkansas System plans to offer the courses at a lower cost.
He also said the system plans to forgo asking for state funding for the eVersity program, instead relying on tuition to make it self-sustaining.
Michael Moore, the system's vice president for academic affairs, said eVersity will focus on areas of study that lead to jobs including business, criminal justice, information technology and health care management, and it will include everything from "certificates to baccalaureate degrees."
"We haven't set our tuition exactly ... we envisioned our tuition would be above the cost of a community college," Moore said. "I think it's even more appropriate to compare the price to other private online universities that the senator [Cheatham] referenced earlier. Those institutions charge about $1,500 a course, so our cost would be about a third."
Moore said the 14,000 students who take courses entirely online are the system's prime target for the classes, not students who sit in classrooms at the system's existing campuses.
"There's reasons people go to a physical campus, and they will absolutely continue to do that," he said.
Sen. Blake Johnson, R-Corning, asked whether the legislation could be broadened to allow other state universities and colleges to create similar programs.
"If other universities in the state want to forgo state revenue to do this, we'd welcome that," Moore said. "There's also a difference between using online courses to help your existing students who are taking some classes face to face ... that's not the kind of student we are seeking. We are a 100 percent online university."
Information for this article was contributed by Jeannie Roberts of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 02/19/2015