Central Arkansas Home Schoolers Continue Tradition of Excellence

Education, Home School

In October, Family Council’s home school division, the Education Alliance, received a home school honor society application from two students in central Arkansas whose ACT scores were among the best in the nation.

Eleventh grader Jesse Muller from Little Rock scored a 36 on the ACT earlier this year. Jesse’s brother, Tobias, scored a 35. Both students have 3.9 GPAs calculated on a four-point scale.

For perspective, the 2024 ACT Profile Report indicates the average ACT score for the past five years has hovered between 19 and 20 out of 36. Scoring a 35 puts Tobias in the 99th percentile of all students who took the ACT. And only about one in every 450 students scores a 36 like Jesse.

We have written repeatedly about how home schooling makes it possible for students and families to thrive.

Last year, a home school robotics team from Russellville competed in the world robotics championship in Texas.

Home schoolers from Arkansas are routinely named National Merit Scholar Semifinalists.

For years, the State of Arkansas tested home schoolers. In 2009, Arkansas’ home schoolers performed better on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills than 60% – 80% of the students who took that test nationwide. In fact, home schoolers in Arkansas performed so well on standardized tests year after year that the Arkansas Legislature finally ended state-mandated testing in 2015.

The ACT may be one way to measure students, but it’s not the only way. Beyond academics, home schooling is great for families. It lets parents and students tailor an education that’s right for them. It gives moms and dads the opportunity to teach their values and convictions to their children.

Family Council and the Education Alliance would like to recognize Jesse and Tobias–and their family–for their academic achievement and for continuing Arkansas’ longstanding tradition of home school excellence.

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

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More than 16K Students Apply for School Choice Funding Under LEARNS Act

Education, ,

The Arkansas Department of Education reports more than 16,000 students have applied for Education Freedom Account (EFA) funding under Arkansas’ LEARNS Act. Families can use EFA funding to help their children receive a publicly-funded education at a public or private school or at home.

Since COVID-19, enrollment in private schools and in home schooling has surged in Arkansas.

In 2023 the Arkansas Legislature passed the LEARNS Act creating Education Freedom Accounts in Arkansas. The law also prohibits critical race theory in public schools, and it protects young elementary school children from inappropriate sexual material.

Many families feel like public education has deteriorated over the years, and they don’t like the direction it is heading. For those families, EFA funding and school choice legislation like the LEARNS Act could empower them with real alternatives that will help their children succeed.

That is part of the reason Family Council supported the 2023 LEARNS Act.

The fact that the State of Arkansas has received more than 16,000 applications for EFA funding shows there is serious demand for school choice in Arkansas.

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

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Louisiana Passes Law Requiring Ten Commandments in Public Schools, Colleges

Education
Above: Arkansas’ monument of the Ten Commandments authorized in 2015.

Last week Louisiana passed a law requiring public schools, colleges, and universities to display the Ten Commandments in their classrooms.

The law highlights the historical impact that the Ten Commandments have had on American government, and it provides how each school should display them, based on past court rulings.

Arkansas does not have a law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments. However, state law does provide for the national motto — In God We Trust — to be displayed at school. Arkansas also has placed a privately-funded monument of the Ten Commandments on the state capitol grounds.

The monument is identical to one ruled constitutional at the capitol building in Texas.

Shortly after Arkansas’ monument was unveiled, atheist groups and the Satanic Temple joined a lawsuit to have it removed from the capitol grounds.

The case originally was set to go to trial in July of 2020, but the trial was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuit has remained in limbo ever since.

As we have said many times, there shouldn’t be anything controversial about a monument honoring the significance of the Ten Commandments.

Historians have long recognized the Ten Commandments as one of the earliest examples of the rule of law in human history, and they have helped shape philosophy and laws in countries around the world.

Arkansas’ monument commemorates that legacy. It’s good to see Louisiana take similar steps to commemorate that legacy as well.

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

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