From the Arkansas Advocate:
Democratic state Sen. Fred Love said Friday he would issue an executive order halting the administration of Arkansas’ school voucher program if elected governor in November.
The term-limited legislator made his remarks during a gubernatorial candidate debate with Libertarian nominee Colt Shelby that covered education, prisons, data centers and government transparency.
“As the executive of the state, my department of education will not administer EFA accounts,” Love said. “But what we will do is we will reinvest that money into the public education system because that’s where the money should go in the first place.”
Created by a 2023 education law backed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Educational Freedom Account program provides state funding for allowable education expenses, such as private school tuition.
Because the program was created through legislation, an effort to end it through executive order would likely face legal challenges. Republican-linked justices hold a 5-2 majority on the state Supreme Court.
Shelby said he would rather the voucher program hadn’t been created, but now that it has, it needs to be scaled back slowly to not hurt families who have benefitted.
“I would like to see an income base come to it so we can sustain it and we could put some of that money maybe towards public education,” Shelby said. “There’s a lot of areas that we’re lacking.”
Supporters have said the program helps parents select the school that best fits their children’s educational needs. Opponents have criticized directing taxpayer funds to private schools that aren’t held to the same standards as public schools.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers have also raised concerns about the program’s growing cost. The state Legislature approved $309 million for the voucher program for next year and setting aside an additional $70 million for the program’s anticipated growth.
The voucher program was a legislative priority for Sanders who did not attend Friday’s debate in Eureka Springs, which was part of the Arkansas Press Association’s annual convention. Sanders declined to participate because she’ll attend the Arkansas TV gubernatorial debate, according to convention organizers.
“The Governor looks forward to participating in the Arkansas TV debate like she did in 2022, and laying out her successful record of cutting taxes, significantly improving education with student achievement improving in every grade and every subject, backing law enforcement, and making Arkansas the best place to live, work, and raise a family,” campaign manager Jordan Powell said in a statement.
Prison project
Another priority for Sanders has been building a new 3,000-bed prison in Franklin County to address overcrowding. The controversial project, which is on hold, is opposed by Love and Shelby who offered other solutions Friday.
Shelby, who hails from Franklin County, said he would support former Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s plan to expand the Calico Rock prison. Shelby said he’d also like to have more rehabilitation programs in county jails.
“That way the inmates are close to home, they’re with their family and they’re getting clean,” he said.
The answer to Arkansas’ overcrowding problem isn’t more prison beds, but rather more opportunities for young people, such as summer employment, Love said. Improving literacy is also important because of its correlation to incarceration, he said.
“We have to provide opportunity for these young people so that we won’t have a prison population and we can stem the tide,” Love said.
Data centers
Concerns about the construction of data centers in Arkansas have grown in recent months with communities around the state and their impact on the environment and utility bills.
Love said he would not actively recruit data centers to Arkansas and supports moratoriums on the projects as officials study their long-term effects.
“Data centers are popping up at alarming rates, and Arkansans, they’re worried and they have every right to be,” he said.
Shelby said he would support whatever local leaders decide whether that’s a moratorium or recruiting a data center project to the area.
“We’ve got some areas that are starving for something like that, but they would have their own independent power source, independent water source,” he said.
Government transparency
Though Sanders approved a 2023 law that exempted details about her travel and security from the state’s Freedom of Information Act, Shelby and Love said they’d push to expand the state’s public records law.
Love noted he was one of two senators to vote against the law and said he would support repealing it. The Democratic lawmaker said he supports strengthening the public records law because transparency is helpful for Arkansans.
“That helps our press report, but also that helps the people understand what’s going on,” he said. “And that right there, that is the true power.”
Shelby, who noted FOIA helped him learn more about the state’s Franklin County prison plan, said the law needs to to be “opened up completely.”
“I don’t know why we have to hide anything,” he said. “If you don’t want mama to know, don’t write it down.”
