AG rejects first try of anti-LEARNS referendum 

Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office has rejected a proposed ballot referendum by a group hoping to overturn the LEARNS Act that was passed by legislators and signed by Gov. Sarah Sanders earlier this year.

The group, Citizens for Public Education and Students, or CAPES, says it will resubmit the referendum and that it will work with a sister organization to push a constitutional amendment next year that would replace the LEARNS Act.

The LEARNS Act is Sanders’ signature education legislation that, among many other provisions, creates “education freedom accounts” giving families access to about $7,000 for non-public school options that otherwise would have gone to the public schools where their children would have attended. It also increases the minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000 and provides every teacher a $2,000 raise.

CAPES submitted to the Republican attorney general a proposed citizens’ referendum April 10 that would give Arkansans a chance to approve or reject the LEARNS Act on the November 2024 ballot. The opinion prepared by Deputy Attorney General Ryan Owsley and approved by Griffin said the popular name and ballot title are misleading. It says they don’t make it clear that a vote “for” the referendum issue is a vote to approve the LEARNS Act, while a vote “against” it is a vote to reject the act.

The opinion says that issue is enough to reject the submission on its own, but there are other problems. It says the one-page-plus of proposed summaries of the 145-page act’s components “are more like descriptive labels.” As an example, it points to the phrase “add additional school safety requirements” that summarizes six pages of new measures. It says that some of the proposed summaries are inaccurate and misleading, and it does not contain any summary of several provisions. It also says many of the openers in each clause do not grammatically agree with the lead-in language.

In a statement provided by the office, Griffin said, “I have determined that the popular name and ballot title failed to explain the impact of a vote for or against the measure and failed to adequately summarize the LEARNS Act. Therefore, the proposal failed to meet legal standards and cannot be certified.”

Steve Grappe, CAPES executive director and chair of the Rural Caucus of Arkansas, one of the groups involved in the CAPES coalition, said the group will take the feedback offered by the attorney general’s office, rewrite the referendum and resubmit it. If the rejections continue, he said the group would petition the Arkansas Supreme Court. He disputed the opinion’s reasoning, saying, “It’s all political maneuvering at this point.” He said it’s clear that a “yes” vote would approve the LEARNS Act and a “no” vote would reject it.

“We literally took the title from the General Assembly and submitted that title to the attorney general, and he says that it’s not clear enough what the people are voting on,” he said. “Seems like a double standard to us.”

Grappe said the attorney general’s office will be able to continue saying CAPES did not include enough information to summarize the 145-page bill until time runs out July 30. CAPES has 90 days from when the Legislature adjourns sine die – which is expected to be May 1 – to gain approval and to collect the 54,244 signatures required by the Constitution. That’s 6% of the total votes cast in the last governor’s election.

He said CAPES’ attorneys read through the title and summary line by line to ensure it would meet legal requirements. He said by law signature canvassers will have to carry the entire LEARNS Act plus a summary that Griffin’s office would approve as sufficient.

“We’re trying to make it as concise as we can so people aren’t having to carry around a 14(5)-page bill and then a 30-page summary,” Grappe said.

Grappe estimated that 70%-75% of those involved in CAPES are teachers and educators. Referring to the LEARNS Act, he said “there’s a whole lot about this bill that we like,” including the teacher pay increase. Overall, however, he said, “We have the choice, and we get to run a citizens’ veto on this act because we don’t think that it’s constitutional or good for the future of Arkansas.”

He said CAPES, which filed its statement of organization with the Arkansas Ethics Commission April 10, launched a fundraisiing campaign last week. The group has hired C2G Strategies out of Dallas to raise money.

CAPES is working with a sister group, Arkansans for World Class Education, to submit a constitutional amendment that would replace LEARNS. Arkansans for World Class Education filed its statement of organization in 2021. That group had previously tried to qualify for the ballot the Public School Success Amendment of 2022.