State Department of Education Refuses to Listen to Homeschoolers on Proposed EFA Restrictions

Education, Home School, ,

On Friday, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that the State Department of Education plans to move forward with proposed rules prohibiting homeschoolers from using Educational Freedom Account (EFA) funding to pay for team sports under the LEARNS Act.

The decision comes despite public comments from more than 200 citizens who oppose the rules. Family Council and its homeschool division, the Education Alliance, were among those who submitted public comments against the proposed rules in December.

Lawmakers created the EFA program under the LEARNS Act in 2023, making it possible for Arkansas students to use public funds to pay for an education at a public or private school or at home. Thousands of students have taken advantage of school choice in Arkansas under this program.

Last year the Arkansas Legislature approved Act 920 by Sen. Breanne Davis (R — Russellville) and Rep. Keith Brooks (R — Little Rock) reducing EFA vendor fees and limiting EFA spending on extracurricular activities to 25%. That means a student who participates in the LEARNS Act cannot spend more than one-fourth of his or her EFA money on extracurricular activities.

Family Council supported Act 920 because homeschoolers participating in the EFA program have seen the price of extracurricular activities go up. Cutting vendor fees and capping certain costs will encourage providers to keep their prices down.

However, the Department of Education’s proposed rules go beyond what Act 920 allows. The proposed EFA rules completely prohibit any EFA spending on registration fees, equipment costs, dues, and any costs associated with club or team sports.

Act 920 simply caps spending in these areas at 25% of a student’s total EFA funding, but the Department of Education wants to prohibit spending on team and club sports altogether.

Besides failing to track with Act 920, many homeschoolers have also expressed concerns that completely prohibiting EFA spending on team sports is unfair because public schools fund team sports with state money.

If the Department of Education opts to move forward with these rules, the legislators on the Arkansas Legislative Council’s Administrative Rules and Regulations Subcommittee will have to approve them in February.

Family Council and the Education Alliance are urging all Arkansans to ask their lawmakers not to approve the Department of Education’s proposed Rules Governing the Arkansas Children’s Educational Freedom Account Program.

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

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Arkansas Spent $9.3M+ on LEARNS Act EFAs in November

Education,

Family Council estimates the State of Arkansas spent nearly $9.4 million on LEARNS Act Educational Freedom Accounts (EFAs) last month, based on data from the state’s transparency website.

In November, Family Council reported that the State of Arkansas had invested more than $111.1 million in EFAs from July 1 through October 31.

Last week, the state’s transparency website revealed the figure had climbed to $120,517,891 as of the end of November — indicating Arkansas spent nearly $9.4 million on the program last month.

To date, administrative costs have accounted for $916,574 of the program’s spending. The rest has gone to pay for education expenses.

Last spring, the General Assembly budgeted nearly $187.5 million for the Educational Freedom Accounts for the 2025-2026 school year and placed $90 million in its Restricted Reserve Fund set aside for the program.

Since the LEARNS Act launched in 2023, thousands of students have taken advantage of school choice in Arkansas. Many families feel that public education has deteriorated over the years. For those families, programs like the LEARNS Act could empower them with real alternatives that help their children succeed. That is part of the reason Family Council has supported the LEARNS Act.

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

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Arkansas Receives a Failing Grade It Can Be Proud Of

Education,

This year the State of Arkansas received a failing grade that it can be proud of.

The radical group Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) gave Arkansas an ‘F’ grade on its 2025 United States Sex Education report card.

Part of SIECUS’s mission is “ensuring sex education drives social change.” The group has a reputation of promoting inappropriate sexual material in schools.

SIECUS gave Arkansas a failing grade largely thanks to good legislation conservatives in Arkansas have enacted to protect children from groups like SIECUS.

The 2025 SIECUS report card for Arkansas specifically criticized the state’s laws protecting students from explicit material and pro-LGBT indoctrination at school. It also took issue with Arkansas’ sexual risk avoidance education program that promotes abstinence, and it criticized the state’s good, pro-life laws — including laws that keep abortionists and their affiliates out of public schools.

In 2021, Family Council obtained nearly 1,400 pages of documents that revealed how Planned Parenthood — the nation’s largest abortion provider — had spent several years conducting sex education classes in Pulaski County public schools. We know from experience that the kind of sex education that Planned Parenthood and SIECUS promote simply is ineffective.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s liberals in Arkansas promoted comprehensive sex education in Arkansas’ public schools.

In 1997 the Arkansas Legislature and the Mike Huckabee Administration switched to abstinence education in Arkansas.

Under Governor Huckabee’s abstinence education program, Arkansas’ teen birthrate decreased 17%, and Arkansas’ teen abortion rate plummeted a staggering 48%.

The abstinence education model was so successful in Arkansas that it drew national recognition.

After his election in 2008, President Obama’s administration gave Planned Parenthood millions of dollars in funding for comprehensive teen pregnancy prevention programs.

Experts later found students who went through Planned Parenthood’s sex education program were often more likely to become pregnant or cause a pregnancy afterwards.

In other words, Planned Parenthood’s multimillion-dollar sex education program did exactly the opposite of what it was intended to do.

In 2016 — while President Barack Obama was still in office — the federal Centers for Disease Control released a 208-page report concluding teenagers who practice abstinence are healthier in nearly every way than teenagers who are sexually active.

The CDC’s report looked at everything from seatbelt and bike helmet use to substance abuse, diet, exercise, and even tanning bed use.

Their conclusion was that sexually active teens were less healthy and engaged in riskier behavior across the board.

In spite of all of this, groups like SIECUS and Planned Parenthood still promote comprehensive sex education in public schools instead of abstinence and risk avoidance education.

Given comprehensive sex education’s track record, receiving a failing grade on the SIECUS’s report card is something Arkansans can actually be proud of.

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

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