Fox News reports that according to a new statewide exam, Arkansas public school students have seen an increase of proficiency rates by 7% in all grades and subjects in the last three years. This comes after 2023 push from Republicans to reform statewide education.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders' (R) LEARNS Act aims to put the parents back in the driver's seat of their child's education. Through the act, the Education Freedom Accounts (EFA) program allows for federal funding to be allocated toward parents who choose to send their kids to private schools or even the ones who choose to homeschool their children.
According to Jerry Cox, the founder and president of Family Council, when the test scores came back this year, the homeschoolers and the private schoolers scored better than public school students on a 100-point scale. He says that this is an affirmation of homeschooling and private schooling and proof that the program works very well.
KATV, a local Arkansas ABC affiliate station, affirms that according to the scores, homeschooling student are even doing better than students who go to private school.
Rather than trying to teach all children the same, Cox says the best thing is to allow the parents to make the decisions.
“When you try to squeeze every child into a one size fits all mode of being educated, then some kids are going to fall through a crack,” Cox says.
Sanders says that this growth and achievement in students is exactly what they wanted to happen. She hopes other states, both red and blue, will follow the blueprint, saying that kids being successful should be something everyone should care for.
In the past, stereotypes about education down south have led to the mostly northern blue states viewing themselves as superior in the field to their southern counterparts. James Robertson, policy director at Opportunity Arkansas, says that if blue states aren't paying attention to the improvements of red states like Arkansas, then they should.
“The takeaway should be that putting parents in charge is the best way to improve outcomes for students. I think southern states like Arkansas are proving that this works, and states that fail to do that and continue to deny options to parents are going to get further left behind,” Robertson says.
