Four Arkansas residents have filed a lawsuit challenging a school voucher program created by an education overhaul signed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last year, saying it violates the state constitution's protections for educational funding. The suit filed in state court late Friday seeks to halt the Arkansas Children's Freedom Account Program, which was created under the new law, known as the LEARNS Act.
“The LEARNS Act represents a radical and unconstitutional departure from a public school system that has endured since the establishment of the state of Arkansas,” the lawsuit said. It added that the act would drain 'valuable and necessary' resources from the public school system and “create a separate and unequal dual school system that discriminates between children based on economic, racial and physical characteristics and capabilities.