When the 2025-2026 school year began, approximately 37,0000 students had been approved to receive an Education Freedom Account, or EFA. The scholarship is worth about $7,000 per school year.
Opportunity Arkansas, a conservative political group, is pointing to its polling that found overwhelming support for what it calls “education freedom” for school-age children.
According to OA policy director James Robertson, a poll conducted two years ago found 61% of parents supported education freedom.
“Two years later, as this program has grown, we've seen support jump 20 points to 81%,” he advises.
The voucher program was started after Gov. Sarah Sanders signed the Arkansas LEARNS Act into law in 2023. The new law has withstood numerous lawsuits to fight it.
Robertson acknowledges that critics say the school choice movement hurts public schools but he insists that is not true in Arkansas.
“When families have options, and they have walkaway power with education freedom,” he says, “it forces all providers across the spectrum to innovate and provide better solutions.”
