Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin on Tuesday rejected the For AR Kids committee's proposed ballot language for a constitutional amendment that would expand the state's obligation to provide an adequate education to public school students in Arkansas, and require all schools that receive state or local funds to meet the same state academic and accreditation standards.
The Republican attorney general said he must reject the committee's proposed popular name and ballot title because of various problems in the text of the proposed constitutional amendment -- nearly all of which are imported into the proposed ballot title -- and he asked for the proposed constitutional amendment, popular name and ballot title to be redesigned.
The For AR Kids committee proposed the Equal Rights Amendment of 2024 for its popular name.
The attorney general's certification of the proposed popular name and the proposed ballot title for the committee's proposed constitutional amendment is required to open the door for the committee to start collecting signatures of registered voters to try to get the committee's proposed constitutional amendment on the general election ballot.
Ballot committees are required to turn in 90,704 signatures of registered voters, including signatures from 50 counties, by July 5 to the secretary of state's office to qualify their proposed constitutional amendment for the 2024 general election ballot.
The For AR Kids committee includes the Arkansas Conference of the NAACP, the Arkansas Education Association, the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, the Citizens First Congress and the Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students (CAPES), according to the committee's statement of organization filed with the Arkansas Ethics Commission.
CAPES led an effort to repeal the LEARNS Act through a ballot referendum, but fell short of submitting enough signatures of registered voters in Arkansas in August to qualify its proposed referendum for the 2024 general election ballot. The LEARNS Act is Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' signature education initiative.
The LEARNS Act increased the starting annual teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, gave teachers making above the minimum a $2,000 raise, and created a voucher program, known as Education Freedom Accounts, for students to attend a private or parochial school or home school. The vouchers are worth 90% of the per-pupil funding schools receive from the state.
Griffin said sections of the For AR Kids committee's proposed constitutional amendment would apply identical state academic standards and identical state accreditation standards to all schools receiving local or state funds.
"Many parochial schools provide religious instruction as part of their academic curriculum," he wrote in his six-page letter to For AR Kids President Barry Jefferson. "If enacted, your proposal would prevent parochial schools from offering that instruction. This limitation would violate the First Amendment. As the Arkansas Supreme Court and several of my predecessors have noted, when a proposal is clearly unconstitutional, its sponsors are not entitled to invoke the legislative process at all. It is misleading to present a proposed measure to voters when some or all of the measure is clearly unconstitutional and therefore could not become effective."
Bill Kopsky, treasurer for the For AR Kids the committee, said Tuesday he disagreed with Griffin's contention the proposed constitutional amendment would violate the First Amendment.
The proposed constitutional amendment isn't attempting to target religious schools or any other schools, and "we feel confident in our legal assessment," he said.
Kopsky, who is executive director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, said it's not surprising Griffin rejected the For AR Kids committee's initial proposed ballot language for its proposed constitutional amendment because the attorney general has rejected the other ballot committees' first proposals.
He said committee officials will meet with their legal team, figure out what to change in their proposal, and submit a second version of their proposal to the attorney general's office.
Griffin said the proposed text of the constitutional amendment includes key terms that are vague or ambiguous, and the lack of clarity on these key terms prevents him from ensuring the proposed ballot title does not mislead by amplification or omission and from substituting and certifying a more appropriate ballot title.
The phrases identical state academic standards and identical state accreditation standards and these phrases are not defined in the proposed constitutional amendment, he said.
"Without definitions, these terms would be simply repeated verbatim in the ballot title, leaving the voter uninformed about what the provisions mean," Griffin said.
Under the For AR Kids committee's proposed constitutional amendment, for any primary or secondary school that receives the benefit of local or state funds, the state shall require every such school to comply with identical state academic standards and identical state standards of accreditation, including student and school assessments of those standards.
Under the proposed constitutional amendment, the benefit of local or state funds includes:
Appropriations for the benefit of the school;
Appropriation, or designations of such funds, for the benefit of any student attending the school to cover or defray costs of attending the school.
Tax benefits, or tax credits, for the benefit of the school or the benefit of the student attending such school, or the student's parents or guardians to help cover or defray the costs of attending the school;
Any other source of public funds.
"The failure of any non-school to comply with identical State academic standards and identical State standards of accreditation, including student and school assessments of those standards, shall result in the loss of the benefit of local or State funds ..." under the proposed constitutional amendment.
Griffin said the definition of the phrase "receiving the benefit of local or state funds" is far from clear.
The For AR KIDS committee's proposed constitutional amendment would expand the state's obligation to maintain a general, suitable and efficient system of free public schools.
Under the proposed constitutional amendment, the state's obligation to provide an adequate education shall include:
— Universal access to voluntary early childhood education for students from 3 years old until they qualify for kindergarten;
— Universal access to voluntary after-school and summer programs necessary for the achievement of an adequate education;
— Assistance to children who are within 200% of the federal poverty line so that the qualifying children can achieve an adequate education and overcome the negative impact of poverty on education; and
— Support and services that fully meet the individualized needs of students with disabilities to allow them meaningful access to integrated education.
The proposed amendment would specify that an adequate education means every child educated in the public schools should develop to full capacity a minimum of literacy, mathematical ability, knowledge of government sufficient to equip the individual to make informed choices as a citizen, self-knowledge sufficient to intelligently choose life work, vocational or advanced academic training, recreational pursuits, creative interests and social ethics.
Griffin said the proposal provides a definition of an adequate education that is exceedingly vague.
"Education cannot be 'adequate,' 'full capacity,' and 'minimum' at the same time," he wrote in his letter to Jefferson. "The terms 'advanced academic training,' 'recreational pursuits' 'creative interests' and 'social ethics' are so vague that they cannot be adequately summarized in the ballot title."