Lawmakers on the Administrative Rules Subcommittee will hold a hearing to discuss new Educational Freedom Account rules in Little Rock this Monday, June 15.
The meeting will take place at 1:30 PM in Room A of the Multi-Agency Complex (Big MAC) nextdoor to the Capitol Building at 1 Capitol Mall, Little Rock AR 72201.
The meeting will be open to the public, and homeschoolers may have an opportunity to testify at the meeting.
The new EFA rules carry a number of unintended consequences the could affect homeschoolers in the program.
For example, the rules prevent homeschoolers from spending any EFA money on “sports that restrict or limit participation based on tryouts or ability.” That would unintentionally exclude homeschoolers from spending EFA money on many typical junior and high school athletic programs.
The rules create a bureaucratic preapproval process that could unintentionally force families to wait too long for approval or reimbursement of educational supplies and equipment necessary for courses. Homeschoolers tell us approval for EFA expenses is already taking weeks or months. The process created under these rules could take even longer.
The rules also contain language that could permanently remove families from the program for honest mistakes with their EFAs. Instead of giving families an appeal process or a way to correct honest mistakes, subsection (C) on page 35 of the rules would simply make families ineligible for the EFA program.
We are encouraging all of our homeschool friends to come to Monday’s meeting to share concerns they have about unintended consequences from the new EFA rules.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
