As expected, the tug of war between school choice advocates and defenders of traditional public schools played out in Arkansas’s 91st General Assembly, which concluded its flurry of lawmaking last week.
For the second time this legislative session, a controversial bill that would establish education savings accounts to be used at parents' discretion to fund private school and other education costs failed to pass in the Arkansas House.
A controversial bill that would establish education savings accounts to be used at parents' discretion to fund private school and other education costs passed in an 11-5 vote in the Arkansas House Education Committee Tuesday.
The Joint Budget Committee adopted an amendment last week to expand the appropriation for a special needs voucher program. An earlier version of the appropriation bill for the state Department of Education called for $800,000 to fund the Succeed Scholarship program for the 2017-18 school year, the same amount of money for the program that was appropriated in the 2016 fiscal session of the General Assembly. The amended version increases the appropriation to $1.3 million.
A passionate group of parents and reading advocates left the state Capitol disappointed but determined not to give up last week when a bill that would give teeth to a law that requires dyslexia screening and intervention in public schools failed to pass out of a Senate committee.
A bill that would expand a special-needs education voucher program to include foster children passed on a voice vote with some dissent in the Senate Education Committee Wednesday.
A controversial bill that would establish education savings accounts to be used at parents' discretion to fund private school and other education costs passed in a 22-5 vote in the Arkansas Senate Tuesday. Senate Bill 746 and its predecessor, House Bill…
A bill that would expand a special-needs education voucher program to include foster children passed in a 82-3 vote in the House Monday.
A bill that would establish education savings accounts to be used at parents' discretion to fund private school and other education costs passed in the House Education Committee Thursday.
A bill that would grant Arkansas charter schools the right to buy or lease unused or underutilized public school buildings passed in the House 53-32 Thursday.
A bill that would expand a special-needs education voucher program to include foster children passed on a voice vote with some dissent in the House Education Committee Wednesday.
A bill that would grant Arkansas charter schools the right to use “unused or underutilized” public school buildings advanced out of the House Education Committee late Monday afternoon on a voice vote with some dissent, drawing criticism from some opponents of the bill who cried foul at the unusual timing of the committee's action.
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