LEGISLATIVE
Yet, another big win for public education was the passage of Act 513. This law extends eligibility to receive an Arkansas teaching license to Arkansans working under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. This will open up the teaching profession to more future educators and help to diversify the workforce. This bill was sponsored by Rep. DeAnn Vaught. Another effort to diversify the education profession came with the approval of Act 636. This new law requires school districts to craft a teacher and administrator recruitment and retention plan to ensure a school employee workforce that reflects a school district’s student body. This bill was sponsored by Rep. DeAnn Vaught.
UPDATE
Controversy and COVID-19 marked a lengthy and fraught legislative session. Lawmakers convened for the lengthiest legislative session since 1931. Lawmakers handed Arkansas students and educators a mixed bag. AEA monitored, tracked and testified for and against several bills as they were debated. Here’s a rundown of the good, the bad and the ugly. Some of the biggest wins included the culmination of years of advocacy by AEA to increase teacher pay and increase the state’s investment in public education. Lawmakers passed Act 680 which increases the median teacher salary in the state by $2,000 and sets aside tens of millions of dollars to aid districts in reaching this new goal. Act 680 builds on Act 170 that lawmakers approved in the 2019 session which increased the minimum teacher salary by $4,000. In addition, the legislature adopted Act 614, which increases per pupil state funding of education to $7,182 in fiscal year 2021 and up to $7,349 in fiscal year 2022. This represents the largest increase in state investment in public education in 14 years. These bills were sponsored by Rep. Bruce Cozart.
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ARKANSAS EDUCATOR
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AEA worked with legislators to pass Act 744 which builds on the work that NEA and AEA have been doing to develop Community Schools. This new law secures state support for school districts who want to implement a Community Schools model. This bill was sponsored by Sen. Missy Irvin. Act 612 which initially sought to ban various public employees from the right to collectively bargain, was amended to specifically target educators was adopted by the General Assembly. Currently, there are no school districts that bargain a contract in Arkansas, so this does not immediately change circumstances for educators. However, it does preempt educators’ ability to bargain a contract moving forward. This bill was sponsored by Sen. Bob Ballinger. AEA partnered with a coalition of public education partners to defeat HB1371, a massive voucher scheme. This bill sought to divert tens of millions of dollars to unaccountable private schools. This bill was sponsored by Rep. Ken Bragg. Unfortunately, Act 904, a much smaller, $2 million voucher bill did win legislative approval after the bill sponsor, Sen. Jonathan Dismang, pushed the bill through the Revenue and Tax Committees instead of the Education Committees. In addition, AEA members inspired another bill that will improve voter access to elections information. When AEA staff were preparing elections and voting information for members in the 2020 election cycle, they discovered that not all voters had access to see a sample of the ballot that they will see when they go vote via the Arkansas Secretary of State’s website, https://www.voterview.ar-nova.org/VoterView. This new law requires all county clerks to upload all sample ballots online so voters can know what all they will be asked to consider when they go vote.
