Effort to rein in LEARNS stalls, as expected

By STEVE BRAWNER

Rep. Jim Wooten, R-Beebe, knew his resolution meant to reduce spending for the LEARNS Act’s educational freedom accounts would not gain much traction. In fact, he said so.

After no member of the House Rules Committee made a do-pass motion last Wednesday and the resolution failed, he said, “Thank you. Expected that.”

Wooten’s resolution would have allowed Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, to introduce a bill limiting the scope of the LEARNS Act’s educational freedom accounts (EFAs). Those are providing families $6,864 per student for private and homeschooling expenses this year. Next year they will provide $7,208. 

King’s bill would have reduced that amount to $5,000 for homeschooling students while making students ineligible for the accounts if they were already enrolled in private schools when their families applied for the EFAs. That provision would have disqualified most of the current recipients. It also would have required students to achieve a minimum score on a state test to continue receiving the funds.

Wooten’s resolution was required to even consider the bill because legislators are meeting in fiscal session. Occurring every even-numbered year, these are designed to focus on appropriations bills and are supposed to be limited to 30 days. It takes a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate to expand the session into other topics. Lawmakers have been reluctant to do that. Big policy arguments typically occur in the regular sessions that occur in odd-numbered years.

This school year has been the first that the EFAs have been available to all Arkansas schoolchildren. The families of more than 44,000 have taken the state up on its offer.

The program’s popularity required lawmakers to twice increase funding, ultimately settling on roughly $309.4 million this year. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has asked lawmakers for that same amount this upcoming year, plus $70 million in reserve funds.

Wooten has been perhaps the Legislature’s most outspoken LEARNS opponent since Sanders introduced it in 2023. It passed with overwhelming support from his fellow Republicans.

He has often argued that the program would harm public schools, which traditionally have been funded on a per-pupil basis. Fewer students has equaled less money, although that hasn’t been an issue under LEARNS so far because lawmakers also have increased funding for public schools.

Wooten, a former director of the state’s Department of Finance and Administration under Gov. David Pryor, said the state is headed for a “disastrous financial situation.”

“As the former chief fiscal officer for the state, I’m telling you we’re headed for trouble,” he said.

King, who voted present and then no on LEARNS in 2023, made the same arguments. He said he philosophically supports school choice but said the state can’t afford LEARNS and that it’s time for a financial correction. Eventually, the money won’t add up.

“When you go through a budget shortfall and things get tough, somebody’s going to get shorted,” he said.

The state continues to run a healthy surplus. Sanders has said she will call lawmakers into special session to cut the state’s top income tax rate from 3.9% to 3.7%. But King said surpluses can evaporate quickly.

Applications for this upcoming school year are outpacing this past year’s. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Sunday that as of April 7, the state had received 46,847 applications, compared to 38,079 by the same day the previous year. The total number of applicants this past year was 52,529.

This year’s applications could keep climbing and force the state to dip into that $70 million in reserve funds. It’s also possible that parents are just applying earlier. This year’s application window closes June 1, compared to August 15 last year.

Will there be a more robust debate about the EFAs in next year’s legislative session? Probably. 

Regular sessions are meant for such debates. King and Wooten, 84, both won their primary re-election campaigns and will be back.

But they are a decided minority in their party that controls an overwhelming majority of the Legislature. Most Republican lawmakers support school choice. Even those who have questions will be reluctant to buck the governor on her signature issue. 

Furthermore, with 44,000 EFA recipients, a large and growing constituency has come to expect this government benefit. That kind of thing is hard to take away.

In other words, expect efforts to change LEARNS to struggle to gain traction, absent an emergency.

Steve Brawner’s column is syndicated to 24 news outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com.