The Arkansas Senate Education Committee will have six Republican members and only two Democrat members. While Democrats are crying that they weren’t allowed to stack the committee with more Democrats, we are wondering whether the Republican members will be strong enough to pass real school choice and to block radical left programs in public schools.
One of the most important committees in the Arkansas Senate in 2023 will be the Senate Education Committee. The committee is the first hurdle in the Senate for education bills. This year, the committee will be particularly important because of issues such as school choice legislation and legislation fighting back against the radical left’s indoctrination of children through gender identity programs and the racist teaching called Critical Race Theory.
DEMOCRAT CROCODILE TEARS
You may have heard some Democrats complaining about the new Arkansas Senate rule which limited Democrats to no more than two seats on Senate Committees. It is pure crocodile tears from the Democrats. The rule didn’t take any Senate committee memberships away from Democrats. The rule only limited how much the Democrats could STACK any one committee ABOVE the actual proportion of Democrats to Republicans in the Senate. There are only six Democrat Senators out of 35 Senate seats. If the Democrats had been able to stack the committee with a third Democrat member, that would have been half the entire Democrat membership of the Senate. Most Senate committees will only have one Democrat but the Democrats chose to have two on Education.
WILL SCHOOL CHOICE PASS?
There are eight members on the Senate Education Committee and it takes five affirmative committee votes to pass any legislation out of committee and to the Senate floor for a full vote. With six Republicans that is more than enough to pass school choice, assuming the Republicans follow the platform of the Republican Party of Arkansas, which supports school choice and supports state funding following the child.
The problem has been the Republicans do not always stick together. In 2021, the Republicans had five members on the Senate Education Committee, which is just enough to pass any legislation. But when the House of Representatives passed legislation to prohibit the teaching of Critical Race Theory in school, the legislation came to the Senate Education Committee where it failed because one Republican Senator voted with the Democrats. That Senator, James Sturch, was defeated in the Republican primary earlier this year.
A positive sign is that Republicans overwhelmingly supported Senator Jonathan Dismang’s Act 904 (SB680) of 2021 which was a school choice bill, however, it is hard to use that bill to gauge support for school choice for all families because the scope of the 2021 legislation was so small that it only provided assistance to a few hundred children.
A negative sign is that Republicans overwhelmingly supported Senator Jane English’s Act 490 (SB147) of 2021 to further restrict the window for parents to apply to transfer their children to a school district outside of the district where they live. The prior law limited applications to transfer to no later than May 1 prior to the school year for the transfer. Having to apply during a previous school year means very few families are able to take advantage of the school district transfer law. Senator English’s bill further restricted the window for applications by not allowing applications before January 1. So the current requirement is an application between January 1 and May 1 to be eligible for transfer in the next school year. Senator English will be the Chair of Senate Education.
The point is – just because a Senator is a Republican don’t take his or her vote for granted. The education establishment is very powerful and school administrators want to keep low- and middle-income children on the government plantation.
School choice for every family is the only way parents and conservative teachers will have a voice.
WHO IS ON SENATE EDUCATION?
The new membership of Senate Education is:
- Senator Jane English (R) CHAIR
- Senator Linda Chesterfield (D) VICE CHAIR
- Senator Joshua Bryant (R)
- Senator Breanne Davis (R)
- Senator Jim Dotson (R)
- Senator Kim Hammer (R)
- Senator Greg Leding (D)
- Senator Matt Stone (R)
YOU ARE NEEDED!
Contact your State Senator and State Representative and let them know you are tired of the radical left having its claws in our education system and that you support school choice for every family, the end of publicly funded transgender indoctrination of minors in schools, and the end of teaching the racist Critical Race Theory.
