PRESS RELEASE

The Arkansas Rural Caucus had a Crowd of More Than 80 Upset about Vouchers, Raises, and  Consolidation with the LEARNS Bill 

FARMINGTON, AR - On February, 24, 2023, Arkansas Rural Caucus held a panel discussion on  Rural Education in Arkansas. The panelists included Jess Piper, Gwen Faulkenberry, Dr Diane Gonzales Worthen, Kevin Shinn, and Allison Grigsby Sweatman. 

The panelist spoke to a crowd of over 80 with most attendees opposing the LEARNS bill. There was wide concern over vouchers and the problems it will cause for rural public education and will further lead to school consolidation. There was heavy talk about teacher pay raises, vouchers, and school consolidation.

HERE’S WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

Governor’s education bill stirs concern in Northwest Arkansas’ first public forums on the proposal

Doug Thompson & Tom Sisiom // Arkansas Gazette

The Farmington event was both the best-attended and the most openly critical of the education proposal, with 80 people attending.

Kevin Shinn, Huntsville fire chief and a retired educator who worked in Huntsville schools for about 36 years, told the Farmington forum he questions how teacher pay raises proposed in the legislation will be paid for beyond two years. He said the bill provides for state funding to raise teacher's pay up to $50,000 a year for two years. After that, he said, rural school districts will be left to fend for themselves.

"The salary money is the carrot that's gotten everyone's attention," Shinn said. "But rural schools do not have the tax base to pick up the slack when the state steps down."

Shinn said smaller, mostly rural school districts will have to make cuts.

"They'll start cutting the athletic programs, cutting the arts programs, cutting the music programs," he said.

Farmington forum panelist Jess Piper said she lived in Arkansas and attended Arkansas schools and universities before moving to Missouri. Missouri and other states, including Arizona, Iowa and Michigan, already adopted legislation similar to what is now being considered in Arkansas. "It hasn't worked in any of those places," Piper said. Piper said Missouri teachers were promised raises, but the promises were not kept.

"They lied," she said. "It was all smoke and mirrors."

Jim Lewis of Lincoln attended the forum and said the loss of tax money when students leave a district, as allowed in the bill, will lead to smaller districts being forced to consolidate. A former superintendent of the Lincoln School District, Lewis said smaller districts can't afford the loss of funding.

"If you had 40 students transfer out of the Lincoln School District that would cost the district about $260,000," Lewis said. "That may not seem like a lot to a city district, but it's a tremendous amount to a small district to have to make up. You still have to meet state standards for the number of teachers and the teacher-student ratio. You may have to cut programs and positions. You could cut things like the FFA [Future Farmers of America] program, cut coaching positions, cut transportation. It will make a large impact on the smaller schools."

Gwen Faulkenberry attended the Farmington forum and is executive director of Arkansas Strong. Faulkenberry said Arkansas Strong is trying to mobilize people to rally on the steps of the state Capitol on Tuesday morning, when the LEARN Act is scheduled for a hearing in the House Education Committee.