Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has rolled out her education plan for the state, including an Education Freedom Account to be phased in over three years to allow families to choose the best schools for their children.
“Today, I am delivering on my promise to do the most transformational, bold, conservative education reform in the country,” Sanders said in a Twitter post on Feb. 8, in which she shared details about the plan.
According to the plan, which was shared in a release on the governor's office website, Arkansas Learns will create a system that will expand quality education to grade schoolers, and it will add up to $500 in supplemental reading services to students in grades K-3. Thanks to the Educational Freedom Accounts, universal school choice will be available by 2025-2026, the release stated. The plan also includes pay hikes for teachers and increased school safety measures, the release added.
According to Fox News, other Republican governors have enacted similar programs, such as Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Program, which former Gov. Doug Ducey made available to the state's 1.1 million students. Legislators in Texas are currently debating a similar proposal, Fox News reported, and school-choice plans have been passed in Utah and Iowa, according to a report by the Heritage Foundation.
With the education savings accounts (ESAs) rolled out in Iowa, families that opt out of public schools would still be able to access the state's portion of per-pupil spending on education - about $7,600 - for private school, textbooks, tutoring, and other education expenses, Heritage reported.
Meanwhile, the Utah Fits All Act increases pay for teachers and will create multi-use scholarships of about $8,000 per year for K-12 students. The plan is similar to Iowa's ESA, but families won’t be able to save unused funds. Despite concerns that students in rural areas would suffer under the plan, Heritage reported that Arizona, the first state to offer ESAs, is thriving under Ducey's plan.
Lawmakers in Texas, as well as Gov. Greg Abbott, have expressed support for measures that allow similar "funds follow students" measures, such as tax-credit scholarships and ESAs, as well individual tax-credit reimbursement, Texas Scorecard reported.
