Little Rock, Arkansas – On Wednesday, governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders revealed her plan for educational reform. A school voucher program and increased teacher pay are both part of the Arkansas LEARNS plan. Representatives from each major party reacted to the news in different ways.
“This bill includes everything I wanted,” Sen. Bart Hester said. “A lot of work has gone into this, and it will benefit parents and teachers in this state.”
Hester stated that although legal experts are currently examining the specifics, the measure itself ought to be made public soon.
“We’d love to see it next week, but we’re not sure that’s going to happen,” Hester said.
The school voucher component, according to Democratic lawmakers, would be detrimental to public education.
“We should focus on teacher pay in a clean bill,” Rep. Tippi McCullough said. “With today’s event, it seems the omnibus bill is inevitable, but we will keep having discussions with members.”
McCullough claimed that her party had issues with this bill’s vast scope.
“We should put all our resources into [teacher pay] and make them better, which is a much simpler plan than trying to dismantle parts of [public schools],” McCullough said. “We should stop trying to support a system that’s too big, unaccountable, and far-reaching.”
This, according to Sanders, fulfills her pledge to overhaul Arkansas’s educational system.
“We are delivering on that promise to introduce the most far-reaching, bold, and Conservative education reforms anywhere in the entire country,” Sanders said.