Lawmakers unveiled plans for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' education overhaul in a bill filed late Monday afternoon, which includes a $14,000 increase in the starting salary for teachers and vouchers for every student eligible to enroll in a public school.
In a 144-page bill, Sanders calls for a restructure of the state’s education system that also includes a repeal of a state law to make it easier for schools to fire teachers; vouchers for students to attend the public and private or home school of their choice; an increased focused on job-training in high schools; and more stringent literacy standards for elementary students.
Senate Bill 294, dubbed the “The LEARNS Act “ is sponsored by Sen. Breanne Davis, R-Russellville, and Rep. Keith Brooks, R-Little Rock.
Sanders has said repeatedly that education is her top priority. Her vision for overhauling schools, known as Arkansas LEARNS, calls for a focus on literacy, empowering parents, accountability for teachers, career readiness for students, high-speed internet access and improved security at schools.
Under the bill starting salaries for teachers would increase from $36,000 to $50,000 a year, making Arkansas fourth in the nation for starting teacher pay according to the National Education Association, the largest teacher union in the country. Additionally, each teacher will receive a $2,000 raise.
The bill also calls for the repeal of the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act to make it easier to fire teachers for poor performance.
The bill includes a voucher program where each student will be given 90% of the statewide foundation funding from the prior school year to attend a private or home school of their choice. The foundation founding amount per student for the 2022-2023 school year is $7,413. The voucher program will be phased in over three years with students who attend an “F” rated school, have a disability, are homeless, or are a child of an active-duty military parent being given first priority for vouchers.
By the 2025-2026 school year, every student who is eligible to enroll in a public school will be eligible for a voucher.
Davis said the bill was filed late Monday afternoon rather than Monday morning because "we just had technical edits to make on the bill.
"We wanted to make sure everything was as right as it could be before we filed, but it is relieving to finally have it filed," she said.
Davis said she still plans to present the bill to the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday morning, which will meet in the Multi-Agency Complex immediately west of the state Capitol, and said she hopes the committee votes on the bill Wednesday.