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Arkansas Advocate: Governor, school choice supporters rally at Capitol

news-2020-52
news-2020-52

The Arkansas Advocate’s Antoinette Grajeda has a report on yesterday’s school choice rally inside the Capitol that was hosted by the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders spoke at the rally held in the Capitol rotunda, where Grajeda says Sanders reiterated her commitment to overhauling the state’s education policy.

“This is not about school choice,” Sanders said. “This is about parental choice.”

Arkansas LEARNS, Sanders’ education plan, aims to improve literacy, increase workforce readiness and “empower parents with more choices.” Legislation addressing the goals of this education initiative will be rolled out in the coming weeks, Sanders said.

“We’re working very closely with our partners in the Legislature, and we will reform education in a way no state has ever done in this country, and we will be the leader for the United States,” she said.

Grajeda also spoke with Ali Noland, a member of the Little Rock School District Board of Directors, who said, on behalf of herself, that she is “against privatization policies, often erroneously billed as school choice, because these programs do the opposite of what they promise.”

“They claim to give poor families the same educational opportunities that wealthier families already have, and they’re based on the assumption that private-school education is superior to what’s available in public schools,” Noland said. “Both parts of this are false.”

Public schools aren’t failing and have prepared many Arkansans for college, career, and life, Noland said. She added vouchers don’t cover the full costs of tuition at private schools, institutions that aren’t required to provide transportation, special-education services, or free and reduced meals.

To read the full article from the Arkansas Advocate, click here.


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