What happened in the January ALC meetings
Private and home school account funding
The biggest flashpoint at the Friday full ALC meeting was money for Education Freedom Accounts. Lawmakers were debating an additional $32 million for the program, which allows 44,000 families to use education dollars for private or home school options.
Some legislators continued to frame home school parents as potential fraud risks and argued that EFA funding undermines public schools. Supporters pushed back, noting that public schools are receiving the same or more funding while educating fewer students and that education should be about the student– not the establishment.
When it came time to vote, ALC members approved the funding to fully cover EFA enrollees for the current school year.
Major supporters: Senator Breanne Davis, Representative Howard Beaty
Opposition: Representative Jim Wooten, Senator Clarke Tucker, Representative Andrew Collins, Senator Stephanie Flowers
Discussion meetings: Full ALC, ALC Peer
Pulaski and Perry County land purchase approved
Central Arkansas Water will purchase 1,300 acres in the Maumelle watershed in Pulaski and Perry counties after ALC approved a federal grant from USDA Forest Service to help fund the purchase. The state Department of Agriculture is actually receiving the grant, but Central Arkansas Water will own the property.
This was the third month the grant appeared before the committee. It had been held up the prior two months over concerns that the purchase would block future development and reduce property tax revenue, especially in Perry County.
Support finally came together this month, though not without debate. A motion was made to remove the Perry County portion of the land from the deal, but that was flagged as something that would likely sink the grant at the federal level. In the end, the full grant was approved.
Supporters: Representative Howard Beaty, Potlatch Deltic, Senator Mark Johnson, Central Arkansas Water
Opposition: Representative Mary Bentley, Perry County Quorum Court
Discussion meetings: Full ALC, ALC Peer, with earlier discussion in November and December ALC meetings
DHS can’t skip rulemaking on dental laws
This one gets a little technical, but it matters. When the legislature passes a law, the agency responsible for carrying it out has to write rules explaining how it will be implemented. DHS came before the ALC Rules Committee asking for permission to skip rulemaking on five acts passed in 2025.
DHS claimed that the federal government wouldn’t fund the services because the laws conflict with federal rules. Most of the laws deal with improving access to dental care and reducing pain for people with developmental disabilities or special needs.
The Arkansas Dental Association disagreed and showed up with attorneys, arguing that DHS could still make the rules work if it was willing to put in the effort and work through issues with the feds.
Lawmakers ultimately denied DHS’s request. The message was straightforward. The legislature passed the laws, and DHS is expected to do everything it can to carry them out.
Supporters of rule exclusion: DHS
Opposition: Representative Julie Mayberry, Arkansas Dental Association, Representative Stetson Painter, Senator Missy Irvin
Discussion meeting: ALC Rules
Random facts learned this week
- Arkansas has 72,000 nurses (ALC Occupational Licensing)
- 49,000 RNs
- 14,000 LPNs
- 8,000 APRNs
- 1,100 CRNAs
- 60 certified nurse midwives.
- More than 44,000 Arkansas students are currently using Education Freedom Account funding for private or home school options. (ALC Peer)
- In Review Committee, the state awarded $70.7 million to out-of-state companies and just $8.2 million to Arkansas companies. (ALC Review)
- There are 202,000 prime working age adults that aren’t engaged in the workforce. That includes people who aren’t looking for work and so aren’t captured in unemployment numbers. (ALC Hospital)
Small things
Van Buren School District will install artificial turf at its baseball field at a cost of $1.4 million. (ALC Executive)
None of the $2.5 million set aside for the Used Tire Program can be used for the Jefferson County processing facility, where tires have been piling up. Senator Jimmy Hickey sent a clear warning to District 4 to get things back on track.
(ALC Peer)
The state is spending $2.6 million to develop an app for renewing vehicle tags and other services. The target launch date is October 1.
(ALC Review)
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville plans to spend about $1,000 per square foot, or $100 million total, on a new business building that will add 2,300 student seats. (ALC Review)
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville is spending almost $1 million with a contractor to sell campus sponsorships. Not sports. Think sponsors for a Welcome Back event. Some legislators didn’t like it but approved it anyway. (ALC Review)
Re Nu re entry beds for men leaving prison are struggling to stay full. Representative Howard Beaty said he will be keeping a close eye on the program to make sure it works as intended. (ALC Review)
The land purchase by Central Arkansas water will provide a connection for the Ouachita National Trail, a 223-mile trail that goes from Talimena State Park in Oklahoma to Pinnacle Mountain State Park. (ALC Peer)
Best quotes from the meetings
On the $1 million contract to raise campus sponsorships
Clayton Hamilton, UA:
“A company might offer free pizzas to those new students where there is a value to that opportunity to be in front of that number of students on campus..”
Representative Frances Cavenaugh:
“And there’s no department in the U of A that can handle the sale of sponsorships?”
Senator Blake Johnson:
“On 20, the Walton School of Business, you could get 15 marketing students and give them a share. I mean, you could buy a lot of ramen.”
On empty re entry beds
Representative Howard Beaty:
“Every time I see a reentry program on here, you’re going to hear from me. I’m going to ask about it. I’m going to ask what we’ve got in vacancy. It’s a priority. We work too hard on recidivism in this state with the overcrowding we have now. This program works and we need to utilize it.”
On the EFA debate
Courtney Salas Ford, Department of Ed:
“We want to make sure that all parents and students have the choice for their student that they feel is best, but it’s not taking money from public schools. You all fully fund the public adequacy fund, the public school fund that goes to public schools that you all have determined is the amount that they need.
So if students leave because they have a choice, that’s not something we’ve done. We’ve offered them a choice because we feel they should be able to make that choice for their students. But that’s not us costing the public school money.”
Senator Breanne Davis:
“I drive by one [public school] every day coming into Little Rock that is a failing school, and they have some of the nicest facilities I’ve ever seen…. We are giving families and students freedom and a choice to decide how they want to be educated to meet their learning potential.
And I think it’s fair for us to ask questions– not critical of us– but fair of us to ask questions to superintendents and school board members across our state about what changes they’re making to ensure that when kids walk out their door in 12th grade that they can read and get a job and be successful in life. And those are the questions I wish we were asking more of in here instead of pounding on a program that we overwhelmingly voted to approve and said that we would fund.”
Representative Ryan Rose:
“My belief is that we need to stop characterizing children and families who are making the best education decisions for themselves in a negative light.
Providing options for students and families to be in the best educational setting for them is a good thing for Arkansans. It’s a good thing for families. It’s a good thing for kids. And for us to characterize it as a bad thing, I think is a mistake.”
Representative Andrew Collins:
“This is a money pit. And with any welfare program, once you start, it’s very hard to put that genie back in the bottle and roll it back. And that’s exactly what this is. The more we spend, the harder it’s going to be to ever cut in the future.”
Senator Blake Johnson:
“I’m tired of being 48th or 49th in education. …We need to support this system because it’s about the kids. It’s not about an institution of public education. It’s about the education of the students of the state of Arkansas.”
On the Central Arkansas Water grant
Representative Mary Bentley:
“This is the fourth grant out of Perry County. And the only reason that we heard it here is because they didn’t have enough appropriation in the Department Of Agriculture’s fund to go through without us being involved. …So I just would state that I’ll make sure that we pass some legislation to make sure that we are more involved in the future, as are the local governments.”
On dental services for people with special needs
Representative Julie Mayberry:
“In passing this bill, we made a promise, not just to dentists, but to parents, to patients, to people with special needs that we hear you. They were here. And I can’t back down on that promise. I can’t look at them in the eyes again and say, I’m sorry, it didn’t work out.”
On the Central Arkansas Water land purchase
Bryan Rupar, Central Arkansas Water:
“A portion of the purchase connects the Ouachita National Trail, a 223-mile trail that goes all the way from Talimena State Park in Oklahoma to Pinnacle Mountain State Park, and I believe it’s about a half mile. I’d have to look back through the proposal, cross some private Potlatch-Deltic lands. This acquisition project would protect those.”
