Hancock Talks School Legislation

WOODLAWN - Superintendent Dr. Kevin Hancock told the Woodlawn School Board Monday night that there is legislation being proposed during this current session of the state legislature that could have a significant impact on public schools in the state. Hancock hit on a few of the proposed bills that could impact school during Monday night's regular monthly meeting of the Woodlawn School Board. Perhaps the most significant of those is Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' new educational policy called "Arkansas LEARNS" which she unveiled last Wednes-day. Hancock said Sanders' policy is not a specific piece of legislation but is more of a framework for what she would like to see accomplished during the current General Assembly. "This is the most substantial overhaul of our state's education system in Arkansas history, and frankly it couldn't come soon enough," Sanders said during a press conference last Friday announcing her plan. "The longer we wait to reform our failing schools, the more future generations we're condemning to a lifetime of poverty." Her plan is wide ranging, lay-ing out goals to improve reading, raising the minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000 per year, expanding school choice to include private schools and home schools, and perhaps most significantly, provide "Education Freedom Accounts" to familes. The "Freedom Accounts" would essentially be vouchers that would follow students to whereever they choose to go to school. Hancock presented each of the school board members with a copy of the Arkansas LEARNS plan that media reports sasid was supposedly leaked to the state's public school superintendents last week. The eight-page document provides bullet points on a wide variety of educationrelated topics ranging from early childhood education to facilities and transportation to indoctrination and Critical Race Theory (CRT). No specifics were given during last week's press conference as to how...