Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders ignited the second day of the legislative session with the annual State of the State address, outlining policy goals she hopes to see passed in the next few months.
Sanders opened by reiterating past accomplishments, and congratulating President-elect Donald Trump on his recent re-election. She described Arkansas as a “vanguard of a national conservative revolution.” She told a few stories about her family and her father, Mike Huckabee, the former governor, who she says she will call after a rough day in the office. Then she started to really buckle down on policy.
Education goals
When she first took office, Sanders said she wanted to be remembered as the “Education Governor.” In Tuesday’s speech, she said she’s proud of increases she championed in teacher salaries and new funding for reading tutoring, as well as a controversial school voucher program known as Arkansas LEARNS. She had some families in the gallery who say they were helped by these programs.
In 2025, she wants to pass a package of bills regarding higher education, which she’s calling "Arkansas Access." First, Sanders wants to cut back on application fees for college, a plan which received applause from the audience.
“We will make it so you can submit one application, pay one fee, and use the same application for any state supported college or university in Arkansas,” she said.
Sanders also wants legislation making it easier to access scholarships for those pursuing associate degrees or going to trade school.
The speech got into more controversial territory when the governor said she wants to clamp down on “wokeness” in higher education.
“We will make it so that any professor, tenured or not, that wastes time indoctrinating our students instead of educating them can be terminated from their job,” she said.
The governor did not list any examples of types of content which would open up instructors to penalties and termination.
Child welfare
Sanders said she’s proud that Arkansas enrolled in the federal Summer EBT program last year, which she says served a quarter million students. Having already worked to scale back the state income tax, the governor said she’s excited to now end the state’s grocery tax, which she characterized as “regressive.”
Sanders hopes to use revenue from medical marijuana sales to expand free school lunch and breakfast programs throughout the state. For school breakfast, she says it will be universal. Sanders also touted legislation called the “Buy Local Act” which would encourage schools to buy food for breakfasts and lunches from local farmers.
The governor has spoken before about removing junk food from food stamp eligibility, but only mentioned “healthy eating” more broadly in her speech.

Sanders is happy with laws last session enacting stricter prison sentencing guidelines. She says she was affected by a religious service she attended at a correctional facility in Wrightsville.
“It was an amazing image,” she said, “of men, many of whom are in prison for violent crimes with tattoos on their arms and faces, but with their hands in the air praising our creator.”
She said one of those prisoners wrote to her and thanked her for not giving him clemency, because he said the religious services at the prison made him a better person. This inspired her to want to expand and “require” state prison services. She says they will be “evidenced based.”
The governor also got into a few other miscellaneous policies she has talked about before; for example, making it harder for China to own land in Arkansas. She also wants to pass laws cracking down on squatters, and to make it easier to deport undocumented immigrants that commit crimes.
Last year, Sanders hosted a question-and-answer session with Jonathan Haidt, author of the widely popular nonfiction book “The Anxious Generation.” It argues that a increase in teen mental health challenges and suicide can be directly correlated with a rise in screen time and social media usage. The book recommends banning phones in schools for kids.
On Tuesday, the governor solidified her commitment to further regulations of kids online. A 2023 law requiring parental permission for a social media account was thrown out in court, so she wants this new batch of online safety legislation to be more robust.
She brought with her to the speech an Arkansas mother, Jennie DeSerio, who lost her son Mason Edens to suicide. DeSerio noticed the TikToks he was watching before his death gave instructions on how to end your own life.
The governor wants to allow parents to sue TikTok, and to ban phones in schools from “bell to bell.”
In closing, the governor gave out her first Arkansas Medal of Freedom to Dallas County Sheriff Mike Knoedl for his actions after a mass shooting in Fordyce left four people dead in June. He was one of the first on the scene, helped apprehend the shooter and raised money for the victims.
Democrats’ response
Democrats provided a rebuttal to the governor’s State of the State Address on Tuesday, saying they’ll work with Sanders on areas where they agree, and push back on policies they don’t support.
House Minority Leader Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, said Democrats tentatively support several of the governor’s stated plans. But, Collins says he takes issue with the governor’s goal of making it easier to fire college professors for “indoctrinating” students.
“When we talk about these things, we need to have clear evidence that they’re taking place. I’m not sure exactly what problem we’re solving here,” he said. “To create a pathway to fire professors for perceived woke nonsense seems like it invites a lot of politicizing of the profession, which is something that higher education has tried to avoid.”
Collins says Democrats plan to support easing access to career and technical education, as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of traditional higher education. He says his party also supports the governor’s goal of eliminating the state grocery tax and making free school breakfast universal.
Rep. Fred Love, D-Little Rock, called on legislative leaders to release more details about policies proposed by Gov. Sanders in her speech.
“Where’s the legislation that goes along with the priorities the governor outlined today? Where are the bills? We cannot rush through legislation without a full discussion. Not again,” Love said, referencing the 2023 education overhaul now known as the Arkansas LEARNS Act.
Collins said, while Democrats will push back on policies with which they disagree, Republicans are firmly in the majority in both chambers of the legislature.
“We have a vote like other members of the legislature, and if there are enough people that agree with us, we can slow things down,” he said. “The public has an important role to play too. When the public provides feedback that they want a more deliberate process, that will be heard, and whether it’s acted on or not remains to be seen.”