LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KATV) — Educators and parents are reacting to proposed changes to Arkansas’ school voucher program, known as the Educational Freedom Accounts, as lawmakers look to fine tune the Arkansas LEARNS Act. The Arkansas Department of Education began accepting public written comments about these potential changes on Tuesday, December 2nd.
Channel 7 News made a FOIA request to access those public comments. One proposed change seemed to spark the most concern from the public, and that is the proposal to ban the Educational Freedom Accounts’ use for athletics for homeschoolers.
Parents like Raegon Barnes and Paul Bradley made public comments, saying they are concerned about the future of this program.
“They’re wanting to take away 100% of the homeschool allocation for sports and physical activities, and it seems ridiculous,” says Barnes.
“What caught my eye was the proposed rule-changes potentially having a negative experience on my kids,” states Bradley.
Bradley explains that these changes would impact how much homeschool families would have to pay out of pocket if they register their children in athletics.
“My understanding was the proposed rule changes would effectively cut off the ability to be reimbursed for those registration fees.”
For homeschools, 25% of the Educational Freedom Account funds are used for athletics and extracurricular activities. With the proposed change to slash them entirely, Barnes acknowledges the same changes would not apply to public or private schools.
“You can go to private school; all of your athletics will be paid for.”
She continues: “You know, it was very kind of offensive that somebody, sitting in an ivory tower somewhere is saying we’re going to restrict this and we’re not going to let you figure out how to best support your child.”
Despite the immediate pushback from families, Steven Long, a retired science teacher, agrees with the ADE’s decision to cut athletic funding down from 25%.
“If you’re spending 25% on extracurricular and physical education, that does not leave a lot of other expensive subjects.”
“I felt were abuses of the system, and I know that the new rules have attempted to tighten that, but I don’t think that it has gone far enough,” he adds.
However, Long is proposing a compromise.
“I proposed that a maximum of 10% of the EFA funds to be allotted for the extracurricular, physical activities, educational field trips.”
These changes are not final, but the Arkansas Department of Education is still welcoming the public to submit their comments until Tuesday, December 16th.
To send public comments to the ADE, send them to ADE.RulesComments@ade.arkansas.gov.