On March 9, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) signed into law the LEARNS Act, an educational choice bill that grants Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) to Arkansas families.
School choice is gaining momentum, according to The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, as Arkansas joins Iowa and Utah with universal school choice bills this year. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has been supportive of a similar-type bill that would provide ESAs to Texas families.
"It is now the law of the land in my state to educate, not indoctrinate, empower parents, not government, and prepare students for a high-paying job, not a lifetime in poverty," Sanders said wrote in a March 9 tweet.
According to the Daily Caller, the LEARNS Act will create a universal school choice program by the 2025-2026 school year. The law, cosponsored by 25 members of the Arkansas Senate and 55 cosponsors in the Arkansas House of Representatives, establishes a school choice program that gives vouchers of $7,413 to students outside of the public school system.
In addition to increasing the number of eligible students each year, the law also removes a transfer cap that limited the number of students from each public school district who could enter the school choice program. The 144-page omnibus education law also bans lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in K-5 classrooms.
Under the legislation, in the 2023-2024 school year, students can use their vouchers to cover various education costs such as tuition, school supplies and college placement test costs. Teachers will have a base salary of $50,000, up from their previous base salary of $36,000, and can receive a $2,000 raise in the upcoming school year. Since taking office, education has been a priority for Sanders, including increasing incentives for “good teachers” and giving parents more freedom to choose who educates their child. While some have criticized the law, Sanders has defended it by stating that it will give parents more freedom, and that competition will breed excellence.
According to the WSJ Editorial Board, the school choice movement is gaining popularity in the U.S., as Utah and Iowa implemented a new ESA program in early 2023. The new law will allow parents the funds to choose private school and other previously restricted options. Utah's ESA program allows for $8,000 per students in a savings account; Iowa's amount is $7,500. Low-income families are prioritized.
These reforms share a common principle of state money for education following the child and not the school system, says the WSJ Editorial Board. The aim is to "empower parents, rather than unions and education bureaucracies that have dominated school governance and prevented learning improvements and higher standards that U.S. students desperately need."
One type of school choice, which Abbott has supported, is Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). Designed to give families more control over their children's education, ESAs provide a way for parents to customize their child's learning experience by giving families a personal account for educational expenses including tuition, tutoring, textbooks and online courses.
These accounts are funded by the state, and families can use them to pay for a variety of educational services, including private school tuition, homeschooling expenses and other educational options, allowing them to choose the services that best meet their child's needs. Public support for education choice policies like ESAs is at all-time high. In a recent poll, 70% of Texans and 77% of parents of school-aged children support ESAs, The Heritage Foundation said, citing the Pew Research Center.