To read the full bill, please look here.

"As young people that want the best future for Arkansas possible, we are writing this letter to those responsible for LEARNS to say we are the future, and we support our public schools and our public school teachers. We oppose the LEARNS voucher scam.

The LEARNS Plan will negatively affect students in the following ways, and we demand changes to this unfair and unconstitutional bill.

These changes include:

• The banning of Black History ("indoctrination" and "CRT") is absolutely unnecessary and is an inappropriate attempt to ban teaching Black History in a state that desperately needs to reckon with our past of segregation and racism. This must be removed from the bill, and should have never been included in the first place.
• Removing the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act will allow our good teachers to be fired without due process, and it will negatively affect learning for all students. This must be removed from the bill.
• Giving public dollars to private schools will unfairly benefit private schools that require tuition money. The voucher scheme included in this bill should be removed immediately, and, if included, should only include those with cause to use vouchers, as in the Every Student Succeeds Act.
• Public school students should not be compared to private schools that can reject students that they are unwilling to educate and invest in. This is unfair to every single student and school that will face state takeover and unfair grading based on standards private schools will not have to meet. There must be equal accountability for facilities, testing, and all other standards for schools that use state money.
• Students should not be burdened with a 75 hour-volunteer-to-graduate requirement that will negatively affect working and rural students in particular. There is no reason to add this burden onto students while our literacy rates are so troubling, and this must be removed from the bill.
• The rules and requirements for service providers that accept taxpayer funds should be outlined in full in the bill to prevent corruption in our precious public education system.
• Refusing to inform students about gender and other topics at an early age will disadvantage their understanding of the world and burden LGBTQ+ teachers being themselves in the classroom. This is unnecessary and should be removed.
• The provisions allowing choice in LEARNS currently will destroy high school sports as we know them, especially in rural schools forced to play private schools that recruit students. There needs to be protections in place to ensure that Arkansas sports stay fair and private schools are not advantaged over public schools.
• The maternity-leave provisions and pre-K expansion must be fully funded by the state to resolve any inequity in rural and underserved school districts.

Furthermore, students believe the best way to improve education in Arkansas is to solve the underlying issues that cause achievement to fall: poverty and lack of resources in public schools. Policies we support including in this omnibus education package include: raising pay for teachers while keeping the salary schedule, additional support staff for SPED and ESL students, expansion of college admissions and trade school support staff to ensure students know their options after graduation.

Any legislation that directly impacts students in such severe ways should be created in collaboration with diverse groups of teachers, superintendents, and student leaders from every part of Arkansas. The process, the lack of transparency, and the unanswered questions indicate that this bill MUST go back to committee with enough to be amended and reflect the wishes of teachers.

We call on the Senate, the Senate Education Committee, and the governor to make changes to this bill before signing it into law WITH AN EMERGENCY CLAUSE causing immediate changes and unrest in our public school system."