Family Council, Education Alliance Ask Arkansas Board of Education to Rethink EFA Restrictions on Team Sports

Home School,

On Monday, Family Council and its homeschool division, the Education Alliance, submitted public comments expressing concerns over new rules governing Educational Freedom Account spending on athletics.

Lawmakers created the EFA program 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.

The newest proposed rules from the Department of Education would prohibit EFA spending on team sports that require tryouts or that limit participation based on ability. That means that a homeschool student who wants to play basketball for a local school could not pay for athletic expenses with EFA money even though public schools pay for team sports with state money.

Arkansas law clearly caps spending in these areas at 25% of a student’s total EFA funding, which means no more than one-fourth of a student’s EFA money can go toward team sports and extracurricular activities. The proposed rules go farther by prohibiting spending on team sports that require tryouts.

The proposal also limits EFA balances. Previously, EFA funds could roll over each year up to a maximum balance of $20,000. However, the proposed rules now set this limit at $8,500 or a lesser amount set by the Arkansas legislature in a future session.

The proposed rules also set up a new framework differentiating between “core educational expenses” versus “qualifying expenses.”

Family Council and our homeschool division, the Education Alliance, submitted comments on Monday expressing our concerns that the proposed rules are more restrictive than the state laws the Arkansas Legislature has passed.

At this time, the State Board of Education could vote on the EFA rules at its April meeting this Thursday. Our office plans to monitor the situation, and we will let Arkansas’ home schoolers know what the board decides to do.

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.

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American Medical Association Says It Still Supports Sex-Change Procedures for Children

Transgender, ,

Late last month the American Medical Association (AMA) board clarified that the organization still believes doctors should be able to perform sex-change surgeries on children.

In February, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons announced it now recommends delaying sex-rejecting surgeries for children until at least age 19, and at the time many media outlets reported that the American Medical Association also believed these procedures were inappropriate for kids. But in its March newsletter, the AMA board clarified that those media reports were wrong. Its policy on sex-change surgeries actually has not changed.

The letter said:

“AMA policy on gender-affirming care is unchanged. Our recent response to questions about [the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’] position statement was intended to preserve—not diminish—access to gender-affirming care, and to clarify and reinforce what our policy has long reflected and standards of care. The AMA supports gender-affirming care as medically necessary per our policy.”

To put it plainly, this is not good news.

Public health experts and policymakers in the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, Finland, and other nations have found that science simply does not support giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids.

These drugs and procedures carry serious risks — including infertility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density, and cardiovascular problems. Whistleblowers have come forward to testify about how they were rushed through gender transitions as children without understanding the procedures’ risks, consequences, or alternatives.

Today we know pro-LGBT activists and medical organizations have been citing each other’s work in a circular pattern for years, manufacturing a fake consensus about performing sex-change surgeries on kids.

In 2021, lawmakers in Arkansas passed the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act. This good law generally prohibits doctors from performing sex-change procedures on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

A federal court upheld the SAFE Act last year — meaning it is protecting children in Arkansas at this very moment.

Arkansas was the first state in America to enact a law like the SAFE Act, but since 2021 lawmakers in more than half the country have passed similar legislation.

We are deeply grateful that so many public officials are taking steps to protect children from sex-change procedures. Medical groups like the AMA need to step up and protect kids as well. There is simply too much at stake.

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

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