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Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders proposes wide higher-education and K–12 changes, including universal Education Freedom Accounts
Summary
In a joint address, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders outlined a package called 'Arkansas Access' to change higher education admissions and funding, expand education freedom accounts statewide next year, and shift state funding to support associate and nondegree credentials as well as four-year degrees.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders outlined a package of higher-education and K–12 proposals she called “Arkansas Access,” saying the plan will expand access to college and nondegree credentials and simplify the application process across state-supported institutions.
“Together, we will expand Arkansas Access to higher education and non degree credentials,” Gov. Sanders said, adding the state will “make it so that you can submit one application, pay one fee, and use the same application for any state supported college or university in Arkansas.” She also said the administration will change the higher-education funding model to put state dollars behind bachelor’s, associate’s and nondegree credentials.
Sanders proposed expanding scholarships and funding college credits while students are still in high school. She said education freedom accounts (EFAs), which provide families state-supported education funds for private-school tuition and other uses, will go universal next year so “every student in the state of Arkansas will have an opportunity like Elijah,” a student Sanders cited as an example.
On teacher compensation and K–12 investments, Sanders cited recent gains and said some teachers now earn $50,000 a year “for the first time,” and credited high-impact grants and accountability measures for classroom improvements. She tied those investments to school safety efforts and other education priorities the administration plans to continue.
Sanders also made controversial-sounding personnel proposals: “We will make it so that any professor, tenured or not, that wastes time indoctrinating our students instead of educating them, can be terminated from their job,” she said.
None of the proposals were advanced as enacted law in the session record provided; they were presented as the governor’s legislative priorities for the session.
Provenance: Governor’s Arkansas Access and universal EFA remarks appear in her joint-session address.
