Home School Surge Continues in Arkansas

Home School

New data show home schooling has continued to surge across the United States — especially in Arkansas.

The Washington Post recently reported that among 32 states and Washington, D.C., the number of home school students has increased by 51% since the 2017-2018 school year.

The number of home schoolers rose in Arkansas from 20,331 in 2018 to 30,205 last year — nearly a 49% increase!

During the coronavirus pandemic, as many as one in ten families in Arkansas home schooled their children during.

Family Council has always believed families deserve options when it comes to education. That’s one reason we support home schooling.

Research shows parental involvement generally is tied to better educational outcomes for children. That’s true no matter how families choose to educate their children — but home schooling is particularly good for many families, because it lets them choose the education that’s best for them.

Home schooling is a great example of how giving families options can help their children flourish.

Family Council has supported home schooling for more than 25 years, because it empowers parents to give their son or their daughter the education that’s right for them. Home schooling in Arkansas has been incredibly successful as a result.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Marijuana Linked With Increased Risk of Heart Attack, Failure: New Study

Marijuana

Regular marijuana use may raise the risk for heart attack, stroke, or heart failure — especially among people with other underlying health issues — according to two studies presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2023.

The first study found daily marijuana use raised a person’s risk of heart failure by about one-third, compared to people who never used marijuana.

The second study examined 28,535 marijuana users with existing cardiovascular risk factors — including high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, or high cholesterol. It found:

  • 20% had an increased chance of having a major heart or brain event while hospitalized.
  • 13.9% of marijuana users with cardiovascular risk factors had a major adverse heart and brain event while hospitalized compared to non-users.
  • Marijuana users had a higher rate of heart attacks.
  • High blood pressure and high cholesterol were predictors of major heart and brain problems among marijuana users.

Experts also noted that smoking marijuana increases concentrations of carbon monoxide and tar in the human body much like tobacco — and that both tobacco and marijuana have been linked to heart disease, chest pain, heart rhythm disturbances, heart attacks, and other serious problems.

All of this underscores what we have said for years: Marijuana may be many things, but “harmless” simply is not one of them.

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State of Arkansas Accepting Grant Applications from Pregnancy Help Organizations

Abortion, , ,

The State of Arkansas has begun accepting grant applications from pro-life pregnancy help organizations. The grants are part of the state’s 2023 Pregnancy Help Organizations Grant Program for the 2023-2024 budget cycle.

In April, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed Act 622 of 2023 authorizing $1 million in state-funded grants for crisis pregnancy centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies, and social services agencies that provide material support to women with unplanned pregnancies.

Under Act 622, the Department of Finance and Administration distributes this grant funding to eligible organizations that provide women and families with alternatives to abortion.

This $1 million in grant funding will help offer women actual pro-life assistance in the face of an unexpected pregnancy.

Since the 2022 Dobbs decision reversing Roe v. Wade, state legislatures around the country have ramped up state funding for pregnancy help organizations.

For example, Ohio recently raised its state budget for pregnancy resource centers to $14 million per biennium.

In Tennessee, legislators appropriated $20 million for pro-life organizations that provide alternatives to abortion. Florida’s state budget allocates $30 million pregnancy help organizations.

The Texas Legislature budgets $50 million per year to its abortion alternatives program.

And Kansas — where some 405 women from Arkansas had abortions in 2022 — will provide $2 million to pregnancy centers.

In June the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration finished awarding $1 million in grant funds to pregnancy help organizations as part of the 2022-2023 budget cycle. Now the state is preparing to award another million dollars by June 30, 2024.

Now that Roe v. Wade has been reversed and abortion is generally prohibited in Arkansas except to save the life of the mother, the state needs to take steps to make abortion unthinkable and unnecessary. That is what this grant funding will help do.

This grant money will support women and families in Arkansas, and it will help build a culture of life in our state. That’s something to celebrate.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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