FILE - Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs an education overhaul bill into law on March 8, 2023, at the state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark. Four Arkansas residents filed a lawsuit on Friday, June 7, 2024, challenging the school voucher program created by the bill, saying it violates the state constitution’s protections for educational funding. created by an education overhaul signed by Gov.
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 voucher program, which is being phased in, pays for private- and home-schooling costs equal to 90% of the state’s per-student funding for public schools.
Arkansas lawmakers set aside $97 million in funding for the program for the upcoming year, with up to 14,000 students expected to participate. The lawsuit claims the program violates Arkansas’ constitution by diverting tax money intended to help public schools. “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.
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