State of the State Mid-Year 2023: In education, Arkansas is in a state of change

Editor’s note: The State of the State series provides reports twice a year on Arkansas’ key economic sectors. The series publishes stories to begin a year and stories in July/August to provide a broad mid-year update on the state’s economy. Link here for the State of the State page and previous stories.

Now that Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ LEARNS Act has become the law in Arkansas, public and private schools are in a state of change.

The wide-ranging 145-page law, which went into effect Aug. 1, increases minimum public school teacher salaries from $36,000 to $50,000, makes it easier for schools to fire underperforming teachers, and requires third-graders to read at grade level or potentially face being retained one year. Many of the law’s provisions remain to be determined though the rules process.

Perhaps its most contentious aspect is its creation of “education freedom accounts” that give families access to public school funds for private and homeschooling expenses. For the 2023-24 school year, that amount equals roughly $6,600, and it will increase each year as state funding for schools increases.

Only certain students are eligible for the education freedom accounts this year. Those include first-time kindergartners, students at the state’s lowest-performing public schools, and others. The number is limited to 1.5% of the state’s public school population this year but grows to 3% next year. All students will be eligible in 2025-26.

At last count, 84 private schools in Arkansas have been approved by the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) to accept students using the education freedom accounts. Another six applications were pending or were being revised. Of those approved, 73 appear to be affiliated with the Christian faith. Others include Pulaski Academy, where the 12th grade tuition is $17,940, and The Huda Academy, a Muslim school. Twenty-six are in the Little Rock-North Little Rock area. Another 14 are in Northwest Arkansas, and eight are in the Fort Smith-Van Buren area.

The LEARNS Act has faced legal challenges on two fronts.

Along one front, some patrons of the Marvell-Elaine School District sued saying that actions taken regarding the district were unconstitutional. They said lawmakers failed to pass the emergency clause on a separate vote from the bill itself, thereby negating all actions that occurred until Aug. 1. The case is now before the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Along the other front, a citizens group, Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students, attempted to pass a referendum that would repeal the law, but it did not collect enough signatures.

Dr. Mike Hernandez is executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, which represents public school principals and superintendents. He said that while all schools support paying teachers higher salaries, educators are approaching the law with varying attitudes.

“There’s probably a little bit of a mix,” he said. “I think there’s some angst. I think there’s some that like some aspects of the bill and are ready to take on the challenge.”

Among school administrators’ concerns has been modifying their personnel salary schedules. Each school district will now be paying all teachers at least $50,000, with state funds available to make up the difference. The LEARNS Act guarantees every teacher receives a $2,000 raise. Teachers have been paid according to a salary schedule based on years of experience and educational attainment. The higher starting salaries are forcing districts to compress the steps so that the difference in salaries between a rookie teacher and a veteran might be smaller than it would have been.

As for academics, the latest preliminary ACT Aspire tests showed that only 32.2% of the state’s third-graders were reading at or above ready in 2023, down from 35% in 2022. Many grades did show modest gains, but only in the eighth grade were half of the students meeting grade level expectations.

“These scores demonstrate the profound need for the transformative change offered by the Arkansas LEARNS Act,” Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva said in a press release. “These results are a wake-up call, and we must stop the red-light, green-light tug of war with implementation and act with urgency. It’s time we move forward and focus on evidence-based approaches outlined in LEARNS that will result in increased student learning. Our students deserve nothing less.”

This is the eighth and last year the state will use the ACT Aspire exam. Next year, it will administer the state-specific Arkansas Teaching and Learning Assessment System, or ATLAS. Hernandez is glad the state is moving away from the ACT Aspire exam, which didn’t align with state standards.

The disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic have been a contributing factor to the lackluster test scores. At this point, few students are learning at home, Hernandez said. However, learning loss did occur when students were taking classes online. In response, Arkansas schools have been spending $1.77 billion in federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund dollars on learning loss activities and other expenses. As of the Department of Education’s last update July 10, $1.41 billion had been spent and $363 million remained.

A new and unexpected expense for school districts has been facilities insurance rates increasing at an average of 130%. Hernandez said the rapid increases, the result of several factors including rising property values, took school districts by surprise. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and legislators announced that the state would cover 30% of the cost increase.

Among the long-term issues facing school districts are falling enrollments caused by several factors, including falling birth rates.

Another issue is cybersecurity. Last year, the Little Rock School District paid more than $242,000 as a ransom to cyber attackers. The total cost of the district’s response to the attack was almost $692,000, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. Hernandez said other districts have dealt with the issue and are considering how to fit it in with other school safety considerations.