Letter to the Editor: Points to consider about Arkansas LEARNS

1) There is no provision that prevents charter schools from discriminating against differently abled children. Private schools will not have to take any children with any kind of special needs.

2) There's not enough for a "$10K merit bonus for great teachers" even at one bonus per school.

3) The program is modeled on voucher programs in states like Arizona and Wisconsin. In both of those states, over 75% of vouchers went to users who never attended a public school. Arkansas LEARNS is a tax cut for the wealthy.

4) The bill is unsustainable. If every current private and homeschooled student receives a voucher, without any additional students added, Arkansas would be on the hook for $300 million. The state has no way to pay for this and no fiscal impact study was made.

5) The pay structure kneecaps teacher retirements, too. Ending annual steps and raises for advanced training not only lowers salaries and lowers incentives, it lowers the pensions that retired teachers are expected to live on.

6) Schools graded D or F get converted to charter schools, but charter schools legally cannot be graded D or F, and the Arkansas Department of Education is explicitly prohibited by the law from holding new charter schools accountable for awful performance.

7) Charter schools are exempted from most of the same rules and regulations that apply to public schools.

8) Arkansas LEARNS repeals the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act, which means teachers do not receive a fair hearing for their dismissal.

9) A student in a non-academic elective course who does non-academic community service during that class can get twice as many academic credits as a student taking a required core course can earn in the same amount of class time.

10) If kids don't do well in private schools, they get sent back to public schools. This relegates private schools to be for only advanced students. It systematically funnels dollars and advanced students (and teachers) away from public schools.

11) Republican leaders in Arkansas have threatened to withhold funding from any legislator who votes no on the LEARNS act as a way to stronghold passage.

12) On page 87, the bill states that voucher-account service providers (i.e. financial institutions) can withhold up to 5% of the money in every voucher account “for the administration of the program.” If every student currently enrolled in private school (~26,000 Arkansas students) applies for a voucher account, that’s about $192 million in voucher accounts for one school year. If account providers are skimming 5%, that’s $9.6 million a year of taxpayer money going directly to banks and voucher account providers.

Frederick Adams

Searcy