Briefs were filed Tuesday in a case challenging the constitutional legitimacy of Arkansas LEARNS. Plaintiff attorney Ali Noland is arguing the law was not passed through proper constitutional procedure.
Arkansas LEARNS is the name given to a package of omnibus education legislation passed by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders this year. The bill has many objectives; one is that it plans to use tax dollars to fund so-called educational freedom accounts, pools of money parents can use to enroll their children in private schools. LEARNS also allows struggling public school districts to be taken over by charter companies.
When the legislature passed the law earlier this year, lawmakers voted for both the bill and the emergency clause at the same time. Emergency clauses make legislation to go into effect immediately and not 90 days after the end of the session. Under the plain language of the Arkansas constitution, emergency clauses should be voted on separately from laws.
House Speaker Mathew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, has insisted that proper procedure was followed since the two votes were recorded separately.
Noland's brief reads “Separate roll-call votes were not taken as to the emergency clause in either the House or Senate.” She also argues the bill's emergency clause was written incorrectly.
The Pulaski County Circuit Court put a temporary halt on the law while the challenge moves up to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Because of language in Arkansas LEARNS, the Marvell-Elaine School district is in the process of being taken over by Friendship Charter. This has been put on hold until the law goes into effect.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has called the lawsuit “absurd.”
"LEARNS is going to go into effect regardless of what happens,” she said Tuesday at a town hall in El Dorado. “It just depends on the timing of whether that happens in the next few days or the next couple of weeks.” She also said she was upset the state could not move forward on enacting other portions in the bill, like hiring literacy coaches.
