Two bills on Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders desk would impact school funding, vouchers
Video – Working 4 You: How are some recipients of Arkansas Education Freedom Accounts spending the money of Natural State taxpayers
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Two bills on Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' desk will impact school funding and place limits on voucher spending if they are signed into law.
House Bill 1312 would raise the per-student funding amount from $7,618 per student to $8,162 for the 2025-2026 school year, including $320 for employer contributions to insurance. In the 2026-2027 school year, the amount changes to $8,037 but does not include the insurance since that will now be paid directly to the Employee Benefits Division on behalf of public schools.
More than 34K Arkansas students apply for next school year's vouchers
The per-student fund is paid to schools by the state based on the previous school year's daily membership. Funding adequacy for public schools came from the Public School Funding Act of 2003, the response to the Arkansas Supreme Court's Lake View decision in 2002.
HB1312 was passed by the legislature on Tuesday, the day before the legislature went into recess, and transmitted to the governor on Wednesday.
Working 4 You: How are some recipients of Arkansas Education Freedom Accounts spending the money of Natural State taxpayers
Senate Bill 625 limits the funds that a student's Children's Educational Freedom Account Program may spend. Limits include limiting 25% of spending on extracurricular activities and transportation and, in most cases, not allowing the money to be used to purchase a video game console or a cell phone.
An Educational Freedom Account, part of the Arkansas LEARNS Act, pays 90% of the per-student funding amount to a student who is attending a private or home school. The program is open to all students for the 2025-2026 school year.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announces Education Freedom Accounts now available for every family in Arkansas
SB625 was passed on the final work day of the 95th General Assembly.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Arkansas lawmakers give initial approval to new state insurance captives rate structure
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders tours tornado-damaged Wynne High School on April 2, 2023. (Randall Lee/Arkansas Governor's Office) A legislative committee on Monday granted preliminary permission for officials to move forward with proposed rates for Arkansas' new state property insurance program, the result of nearly two years of work aimed at developing a plan to control rising insurance premiums for schools. Following the recommendation of consultants to create the State Captive Insurance Program, an insurance company owned by the state, lawmakers this year passed Act 560 and Act 779 and approved contracts with vendors to run the self-insurance program. Under the newly approved legislation, the captive will be formed by July 1 and apply to buildings and property owned by a public school, state-supported institution of higher education or the state. During the Arkansas Legislative Council's Executive Subcommittee meeting Monday, Crossett Republican and panel chair Sen. Ben Gilmore recognized everyone who has been involved with forming the captive, which 'has been quite the process.' 'It's important that we acknowledge where we started and where we are now, and this is coming to an end…what we did is something we should acknowledge is very big with the State Captive Insurance Program,' Gilmore said. 'So we are on to the next step with that, and I appreciate your involvement, and we'll continue to work and make this successful.' Insurance premiums have been increasing nationwide due to more frequent natural disasters, additional legal liability from more lawsuits and the growing frequency of cybercrimes, according to Education Week. Arkansas firm recommends plan for controlling schools' increasing insurance rates The issue came into focus for Arkansas in July 2023 when Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the state would help school districts cover the cost of rising insurance premiums. State lawmakers approved a request from the Arkansas Insurance Department to transfer $10.8 million from the state's restricted reserve account to offset the cost of increased premiums. The funding was split three ways — $6.3 million for the 170 districts in the Arkansas School Boards Association-managed program, $4.46 million for the 68 districts in the Arkansas Public School Insurance Trust (which is managed by the Insurance Department), and nearly $118,000 for the Bentonville School District, which procured insurance directly through the open market. Kyle Hales, a principal consulting actuary at Perr & Knight, told the committee Monday that the total cost of premiums for the three agencies approximately tripled between 2021 and 2024 insurance renewals. J.R. Bizzell, senior vice president in Stephens Insurance's risk management group, said the intent of the captive is to 'improve efficiencies with purchasing reinsurance or excess property insurance,' which is what the Little Rock-based firm is primarily helping obtain. 'There's going to be a centralized claims and underwriting component, as well as overall it should help stabilize long-term insurance costs for all of the districts, all the agencies and all the participants of this program,' Bizzell said. For the first year of the captive, Stephens recommends a flat rate for all participants. Premiums are calculated by multiplying the rate by building values, Bizzell said. All schools should have a flat rate, he said. If they change their value due to an assessment, or by adding or removing a building, 'they will experience some level of premium change, but it should be modest in nature,' he said. Stephens also recommends that participants carry a maintenance deductible that's below the captive, Bizzell said. The deductible structure would be changed to a minimum of $25,000 per occurrence, per participant, and $50,000 per occurrence if their total insured values (i.e. asset values) are over $100 million. For state agencies, the recommendation is to move to a $250,000 flat deductible for the first year, he said. The rate and deductible structure for year two is continuing to be evaluated, so Stephens made no recommendation 'outside of there is an expectation that deductibles need to continue to be rightsided and that detail will come in the future,' Bizzell said. Stephens has been coordinating with the Legislature as well as the newly created Office of Property Risk, which will be managing the program after July 1, Bizzell said. In the coming weeks, all participants will receive a summary of their expected premium and deductible, he said. The subcommittee authorized Stephens to move forward with its proposed rate and deductible structure and for the Arkansas Legislative Council's co-chairs to approve that direction by emergency action. The new rates and deductibles will be effective for the 2025-2026 academic year, if they receive final approval from the Arkansas State Board of Finance and ALC, Bureau of Legislative Research Director Marty Garrity told the Advocate. They're scheduled to meet on June 12 and June 20, respectively. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Arkansas Supreme Court releases proposed rule for artificial intelligence
The Arkansas Supreme Court building in Little Rock. (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate) The use of artificial intelligence in legal documents could violate Arkansas law or court rules, according to a proposed administrative order issued by the state Supreme Court last week. Specifically, the proposed order addresses the use of confidential court data with generative artificial intelligence. AI models retain data inputted by users of AI products, such as ChatGPT, in order to continue training the large language models that exploded into public use only a few years ago, the order notes. 'Anyone who either intentionally or inadvertantly [sic] discloses confidential or sealed information related to a client or case [to a generative AI model] may be violating established rules,' the proposed order reads, specifically citing Arkansas Supreme Court Administrative Order Number 19, the Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct and the Arkansas Code of Judicial Conduct. Additionally, the proposed order prohibits anyone with internal access to the state's court system, CourtConnect, from 'intentionally exposing our state courts' internal data to a GAI.' The proposed order provides an exemption to this prohibition if approval is granted by the Supreme Court's Automation Committee to engage in 'a research and analysis project related to the use of generative AI tools and general AI for the benefit of our courts.' The proposed order does not appear to address questions of broader use of AI by attorneys within the state court system. Judges in courtrooms across the country in recent months have expressed frustration with attorneys who have filed briefs and other documents bearing citations to nonexistent or irrelevant cases as a result of so-called 'AI hallucinations,' leading to sanctions in some cases. As reported by the Alabama Reflector, for example, lawyers who were being paid millions by the Alabama Department of Corrections to defend it against lawsuits filed by prisoners in the state system were called out by an inmate's attorneys for making up legal citations 'out of whole cloth' in a lawsuit where their client alleged being stabbed repeatedly while in restraints. The federal judge presiding over the case said that the incident showed that sanctions levied by other courts had proven 'insufficient' to deter lawyers from filing documents with improper or made up citations created by AI. 'That causes me to consider a fuller range of sanctions,' Judge Anna M. Manasco said. The Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Automation created a subcommittee to 'study the use of AI in the courts.' The introduction to the proposed order notes that as the committee continues its work, it will make recommendations. The comment period for the proposed administrative order ends on Aug. 1. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announces merit pay increases for state employees in executive branch
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Monday that some state employees will receive a merit pay raise based on their performance in the workforce. Sanders authorized a 1% base salary increase for employees who received a three on their evaluation and a 3% base salary increase for employees who received a four on their evaluation. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders initiates Community Assistance Grant Program The governor said the raises will only apply to state employees who have worked in the executive branch for at least a year and who have worked at their current executive department since Jan. 2. 'You are the engine that keeps Arkansas state government running,' Sanders said. 'My administration has tasked you with improving services for the people of Arkansas while saving money, and over the past year, you have stepped up and delivered. I am grateful for your hard work.' Not bad pay for government work: What Arkansas government officials have the top salaries Sanders also mentioned Act 499, which is legislation that will raise the pay of two-thirds of executive branch employees. It will go into effect on July 1. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
