On Monday, Family Council and its homeschool division, the Education Alliance, submitted public comments asking the Arkansas Department of Education to rethink a set of proposed rules prohibiting Educational Freedom Account (EFA) money from being used for team sports under the LEARNS Act.
The proposed rules say that registration fees, equipment, dues, and any costs associated with club and team sports cannot be paid for with EFA funding.
Homeschooling has surged in Arkansas and across the nation. Educational Freedom Account funding makes it possible for Arkansas students to use public dollars to pay for educational services at public or private schools or at home. State spending on EFAs has topped $120.5 million so far this year, and thousands of students have taken advantage of school choice in Arkansas as a result.
Many homeschoolers have expressed concerns that completely prohibiting EFA spending on team sports is unfair, because public schools fund team sports with state money. There is also concern that the new rules go beyond boundaries set in the LEARNS Act.
Earlier this year, lawmakers passed Act 920 of 2025 which limits EFA spending on sports and other extracurricular activities to 25% of a student’s annual EFA funding. 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. However, the new education rules would go beyond state law by prohibiting EFA money from being spent on team sports altogether.
Public comments on the proposed EFA rules are due by Tuesday, December 16. Home schoolers can email their comments to ADE.RulesComments@ade.arkansas.gov.
You can read Family Council’s comments on the proposed rules here.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
