Kopsky was introduced as a longtime organizer who has been with the Public Policy Panel since 1996.  The Panel is a nonprofit that is over 60 years hold that releases reports and deploys groups of advocates toward improvement of living conditions for Arkansas families and residents.

The Panel is also the organizer of the Arkansas Citizens First Congress, a coalition of 68 community organizations, founded in 1998 as a sister organization to lead progressive policy change in Arkansas. A convention will be held the third weekend in June that gathers members together to establish a platform for the election year. Recently, the Congress has released a voter’s guide to what Arkansas Legislators did in 2025 that is available to all at its website.

Kopsky opened by describing the Panel and Congress’ past work before turning to the measures the Panel is currently seeking signatures to petition for placement on the November 2026 general election ballot. He credited it with helping to pass initiatives that led to early voting, raising the state minimum wage, medical marijuana and 

He told the group that the first proposal, the Education Rights Amendment, “does three simple things that are really essential.” He described it as an effort to ensure public accountability for tax dollars spent on education, constitutionalize minimum quality standards in schools receiving state money, and guarantee access to specific educational supports that research shows improve outcomes.

Kopsky said the amendment would require “any school that receives public financing to meet the same standards as a public school.” 

Currently, he argued, Arkansas public dollars are flowing into four different education systems — traditional public schools, charter schools, private schools receiving vouchers and homeschoolers receiving voucher funds, each operating under different regulatory requirements.

“Public dollars means public accountability and public standards” in the amendment, he said.

Kopsky contrasted what he called the “highest standards” applied to traditional public schools with the lesser requirements imposed on charters, which he said are not required to have certified teachers or accept all students with special needs, and the even looser requirements for private and home-based voucher recipients.

Citing media reports, Kopsky said some homeschool families had used voucher funds for items such as “luxury chicken coops,” gaming equipment and other purchases that, in his view, point to the need for consistent oversight.

Under the amendment, any entity accepting taxpayer funds would be subject to the same baseline expectations.

The second component, he said, would write Arkansas’s existing minimum education standards into the state Constitution. Those standards stem from the 2002 Lake View decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court, which adopted seven essential educational benchmarks often referred to as the Rose principles.

Right now, Kopsky explained, those standards exist because of court rulings, not because they are embedded in the Constitution. “If the Lake View case ever goes back to the Supreme Court, it could be watered down,” he said, adding that today’s court is “quite different than the Supreme Court of 2002.” 

If voters can place the language “word for word” into the Arkansas Constitution, he said, future legislatures and courts would be bound to uphold those minimum quality guarantees.

The third component would guarantee access to four categories of educational support: services for students with special needs, assistance for children in poverty, after-school and summer learning programs and universal pre-K for three- and four-year-olds.

On special education, Kopsky cited a 2016 state-commissioned study concluding that Arkansas was underfunding services for special education “by hundreds of millions of dollars.” Since that report, he said, no significant new funding had been added. Embedding a constitutional right to adequate special education, he argued, would give families and districts leverage to demand compliance.

He also addressed child poverty, noting that “the single biggest indicator of a student’s performance in school is, sadly, their family income,” and that Arkansas ranks last nationally in child poverty. The amendment would require the state to provide learning supports to help economically disadvantaged students meet constitutional standards.

After-school and summer programs, he said, are among the most proven tools to boost academic performance, yet the Legislature has never funded a statewide framework created in 2009. The amendment would require funding of such programs.

Finally, Kopsky emphasized early childhood education. Pre-K funding, he said, “has not been increased in Arkansas since 2009.”  The amendment would create a constitutional right to quality pre-K for all three- and four-year-olds.

The measure has been approved by the Attorney General for signature gathering, he confirmed, noting that the only language change from the 2024 version was updating the election year to 2026 

In the last election cycle, volunteers collected 71,000 signatures in roughly six to eight weeks but fell 20,000 short of the 91,000 required to qualify a constitutional amendment. The deadline this year is July 3, Kopsky said.

“If we put this on the ballot, it will pass,” he said, adding that polling indicates strong support. “The challenge is getting the 91,000 signatures” 

From education, Kopsky turned to what he called the Ballot Measure Rights Amendment, a proposal designed to protect the citizen initiative process itself.

He framed the issue against what he described as escalating legislative interference. In recent sessions, he said, lawmakers introduced more than 20 bills affecting ballot measures.

The amendment, he said, would do four primary things: stop political interference, establish a “fundamental right” to participate in the initiative process, guarantee due process protections and protect the integrity of the system.

On political interference, Kopsky referred to a recent decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court holding that the Legislature could amend the Constitution on its own authority. “Only Arkansas voters can amend the Arkansas constitution,” he said, describing that as the amendment’s position. The proposal would preserve the legislature’s power to refer up to three amendments per cycle to voters but remove its ability to alter the Constitution unilaterally.

He also addressed the county distribution requirement for signatures. The Arkansas Constitution requires meeting the threshold in 15 counties, but lawmakers raised that to 50 by statute. A circuit court recently struck down the 50-county requirement as unconstitutional, though the state has appealed and the Supreme Court has not been friendly to the initiative process in its decisions lately. The proposed amendment would fix the requirement at 15 counties.

The second component would enshrine a “fundamental right” to sign, collect and propose ballot measures. Kopsky described recent laws requiring canvassers to inform signers that signature fraud is a crime, read the full ballot title aloud and check photo IDs before accepting signatures as impractical in many situations. A federal court has temporarily blocked enforcement of some of those provisions, he said.

The third component would in Kopsky’s words, “champion due process.” Under current practice, he said, the Secretary of State’s office rejects between up to 70 percent of signatures for technical reasons, often without notifying signers. The amendment would require the state to notify voters whose signatures are rejected and give them 10 days to correct the issue. It would also require notice and a cure period for campaigns that make clerical paperwork errors.

Finally, the amendment would define signature fraud in the Constitution and require proof of intent to defraud before conviction. While stating that fraud “should be illegal,” Kopsky said the burden of proof should rest with the state and honest mistakes should not be criminalized. It would also bar certain categories of convicted offenders, including those on sex offender registries or convicted of signature fraud, from serving as paid canvassers.

Like the education measure, he said, polling shows the ballot rights amendment “polls above 80 percent” and would likely pass if it reaches voters. The obstacle again is the measure qualifying for the ballot.

Throughout the evening, Kopsky emphasized grassroots participation. Even a small number of calls to legislators can make a difference, he said, and the same principle applies to signature gathering.

“If everybody can commit to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50,” he said, the coalition can reach its goal.

In response to questions from attendees, Kopsky clarified signature requirements, including that petitions must be signed by registered voters in the county designated at the top of the petition page. He also encouraged use of the state’s Voter View website to confirm voter registration details before signing.

Asked about the broader impact of ballot measure activity, he cited a University of Arkansas study showing that voters who sign petitions are “17 times more likely to vote,” calling the initiative process a powerful civic engagement tool.

By the meeting’s end, petitions were circulating, with organizers urging residents to sign and volunteer. Wiley closed by thanking Kopsky for the presentation and encouraging attendees to share the information accurately with others.

Those wishing to sign the petitions or become involved in gathering them are urged to contact Concerned Citizens of Prescott at their Facebook page. 

As Kopsky concluded, he reiterated that the measures’ fate rests less on public opinion than on volunteer effort in the months ahead. If supporters can gather the required signatures by early July, Arkansas voters will have the final say in November.