NEWSFLASH: School Funding

LEGISLATORS APPROVE DEEP DIVE INTO EDUCATION FUNDING

On December 20, 2019 - after more than a year of advocacy–lawmakers approved a contract with consultants to take a fresh look at how Arkansas funds its schools. Augenblic, Palaich and Associates (APA) is a research group with a strong track record of making policy recommendations to improve resourcing public schools in states around the country. This study will take a deeper dive into educational adequacy and equity in our schools. AEA had been advocating for this study since 2018. This effort was marked by a contentious series of stops and starts in legislative meetings over the past several months as an organization with a track record of privatizing public education in other states, Shuls and Associates, also applied to conduct the study. Fortunately, they were not ultimately awarded the contract to conduct the study.

This new adequacy study could be a major victory for improving public education in Arkansas. The study will cost the state $659,580, and recommendations are set to be presented in December 2020.

The House and Senate Education Committees review Arkansas’s public school funding every two years. Following this review, the Committees are required to make recommendations on public school funding levels to the legislature and to the Governor. Currently, the Public School Fund makes up $2.25 billion of the state’s overall $5.7 billion general revenue budget. This biennial review began following the Arkansas Supreme Court’s 2003 landmark Lakeview decision. The research group Odden and Picus produced the initial report for educational adequacy and equity.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS FAYETTEVILLE PUBLIC EMPLOYEES UNION JOINS AEA

Members of the Arkansas Public Employees Union Local 965, formerly affiliated with AFSCME, voted to chart a new course for employees of the University of Arkansas by joining forces with the AEA.

“We are thrilled to join with thousands of other educators across the state to advance the cause of public education in Arkansas by promoting student success, protecting workers’ rights, fighting for a living wage and ensuring campus safety,” APEU President Bret Schulte said in a release announcing the vote.” The Local will continue to stand for all workers in the UA System — from faculty and staff, instructors and graduate assistants to research techs and facilities management professionals.

We are excited that educators from the University of Arkansas voted to join thousands of educators across our state as members of the Arkansas Education Association. – Carol Fleming, AEA President

“Our members will work closely with the AEA in Little Rock to voice the priorities of UA employees to state decision makers in the ongoing effort to aid the university in its mission to make Arkansas more equitable and prosperous for future generations.”

AEA President Carol Fleming said on learning of APEU’s decision, “We are excited that educators from the University of Arkansas voted to join thousands of educators across our state as members of the Arkansas Education Association. We are celebrating our 150th year representing educators entrusted with educating Arkansas’s students from pre-K through higher ed. Our growing membership from institutions of higher education is a natural fit under the recent state government transformation which brought the various facets of education together under one umbrella.”