E-versity Bill Clears House; Guns, School Size Bills Advance

The House on Thursday approved a bill to create a way for people to finish their degrees online through the state’s largest university, while additional measures dealt with guns on college campuses and school district sizes.

The 93-3 vote on Senate Bill 265 capped a busy day in the legislature with committees also approving several requests.

Senate Bill 265 would create a so-called “E-versity” within the University of Arkansas system. Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, who co-sponsored the bill, said the program’s goal would help people in his mostly rural district.

Bell said many people in the district “are 100 miles from the nearest four-year school and 85 miles from the nearest four-lane.” Those numbers have also led to lower numbers of people in his district with at least a bachelor’s degree. Bell said the bill has a special meaning for him.

“It is personal to me. I don’t have a bachelor’s degree,” Bell told the House.

Bell said he has completed between 150 and 160 credit hours but has not earned a degree.

“I’d like to have the piece of paper, but I don’t want to drive the 100 miles or so to get it,” Bell said.

Under the bill, people would be allowed to take six-week courses with a three-hour class, costing around $500. Bell told the House that the program would be funded exclusively through student tuition and private donations, noting nearly 14,000 people in the state already take some sort of online classes.

Students would be able to take classes one at a time, to start with, and could be able to take more if the program is successful, Bell said.

Rep. Monte Hodges, D-Blytheville, asked Bell about a possible impact the bill would have on two-year colleges in the state.

Bell reiterated the amount would be slightly more than the cost of a community college class, but lower than the amount for a class at a four-year college. Some lawmakers also asked if the creation of the “E-versity” would entirely benefit the University of Arkansas.

Bell said there would be nothing to preclude other universities, like Arkansas State University or the University of Central Arkansas, from taking advantage of the opportunity. The bill now goes to the Senate.

COMMITTEES
The House Education Committee also approved two bills Thursday, one of which involved the possession of a concealed handgun in a university, college or community college building.

The bill, which failed in committee earlier in the session, was amended by its sponsor, Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, content partner KUAR reported.

Under the amendment from Rep. Scott Baltz, D-Pocahontas, colleges will require active shooter training for permit holders as well as prohibiting guns at day care centers on campus.

The training class includes 16-hours in initial training as well as eight hours annually in training.

The bill now heads to the House.

The committee also approved a bill that would allow school districts to receive a waiver from an administrative consolidation.

The bill, sponsored by committee chairman Rep. Bruce Cozart, R-Hot Springs, would allow districts that are under 350 students to seek the waiver from the Arkansas State Board of Education.

The district would have to show its average daily membership, proof that it is not in any probationary status due to standards, its current year budget, a fiscal audit done in the past two years and a statement that the district does not face academic, fiscal or facility distress.

Cozart cited the former Weiner School District in Poinsett County as an example, saying the district was 13th in the state on its test scores and had good finances before going under the 350 number mandated for consolidation under Act 60 of 2003.

The district has since been annexed into the nearby Harrisburg School District.

Opponents said the bill could open up the state to legal issues from the Lake View case. The bill now heads to the House.

FLOOR ACTION
A student may have an opportunity to learn what their financial future could hold under a bill that passed the Senate Thursday.

The Senate voted 33-0, with one present, to approve Senate Bill 211 sponsored by Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale.

The bill requires the Department of Workforce Services or someone hired by the department, starting June 30, 2016, to put together an “Economic Security Report” of employment and earning outcomes for degrees and certificated earned at colleges and universities in the state.

The information, which would also be online, would break down the information based on employment, earnings, student loan debt, percentage of graduates in a field as well as degree programs in the top 25 percent of degree fields and the bottom 10 percent of degree fields.

According to the bill, students in grades 7-12 as well as their parents would receive copies of a two-page summary of the report and access to the website. The bill now heads to the House.