Arkansas Hosts Homeschool Family EFA Information Webinar

Home School,

The following is an email announcement from the Arkansas Department of Education regarding home school access to Education Freedom Accounts.

As a homeschooling family in Arkansas, we want to express our gratitude for your involvement in the Education Freedom Account (EFA) program. We are thrilled about the opportunities this program offers families to choose educational options that best meet their needs. The funds available through the EFA program empower you to deliver a high-quality, customized education for your family.

As we enter into the start of the school year, we recognize that you may have questions about the program, so we’re hosting two webinars to address the most frequently asked questions and provide you with the information you need.

Home School Family Webinar #1
Thursday, August 15, 7pm
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_eChlqM29SGqUACAfZjzAcw

The webinar is limited to 1,000 participants, so please register as soon as possible to secure your spot. If demand exceeds capacity, we will schedule an additional live webinar.

This webinar will cover topics such as:

  • How can I confirm my approval status?
  • When will I receive my EFA funds?
  • What is the funding amount available for homeschooling families?
  • What are the eligible expenses?
  • How will I know if what I want to buy is eligible?
  • Can I be reimbursed for expenses I’ve already incurred?
  • Answers to your specific questions

Home School Family Webinar #2
Thursday, August 22, 7pm
Link will be provided next Monday, August 19

This webinar will address the following topics:

  • What is the process for purchasing eligible items with the funds in my account?
  • How can I be reimbursed for eligible expenses I’ve already incurred?
  • What is a digital debit card, and how does it work?
  • Are tutoring or therapy services allowed, and can I choose any provider?
  • How do I pay for services from a micro school, co-op, or support group?
  • Answers to your specific questions

If you are unable to attend a webinar or would like to revisit the information shared during the webinar, a recording will be available at www.dese.link/efa

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Planned Parenthood Website Confirms Location of New Regional Abortion Center

Abortion, , , ,

On Tuesday Planned Parenthood published a web page confirming the location of its new regional abortion facility in Pittsburg, Kansas — approximately an hour and a half from Northwest Arkansas.

The news came after Family Council and others published documents indicating Planned Parenthood Great Plains had secretly acquired the facility through limited liability companies.

On May 14, Planned Parenthood Great Plains — the regional affiliate responsible for Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas — announced it intended to place an abortion facility in Pittsburg, near the state lines with Missouri and Oklahoma. The facility reportedly will perform chemical abortions. Locating in Pittsburg would make the facility the closest abortion center to Northwest Arkansas, Southwest Missouri, and Northeast Oklahoma.

Planned Parenthood Great Plains has been working to hire staff for the Pittsburg facility, but has not formally announced when the facility will open, and did not share the address of the new facility.

However, on Tuesday Planned Parenthood Great Plains published a web page confirming the center will be at the location Family Council and other pro-life organizations suspected. According to Planned Parenthood’s website, the facility will operate six days a week. Family Council has confirmed the abortion giant is currently remodeling and expanding the center.

Planned Parenthood has a history of secretly acquiring some of its abortion facilities through separate LLCs.

For example, in 2020 Planned Parenthood acquired a facility in Rogers, Arkansas, through 12 Redacre LLC. The LLC’s mailing address matched Planned Parenthood Great Plains’ mailing address in Kansas — signaling a connection between the two.

In 2021, American Life League wrote,

The first highly publicized case of Planned Parenthood sneaking into a community using a false identity to purchase, build/renovate a property, and get needed permits, took place in Aurora Illinois in 2007. Since then, Planned Parenthood has used this technique many times to thwart any efforts by Planned Parenthood’s opponents to stop it from opening. It has become standard operating procedure for the nation’s largest abortion chain.

Official reports show some 405 women from Arkansas had abortions in Kansas during 2022. Right now, abortion facilities in Kansas are primarily concentrated in the northeast and central areas of the state. Opening a facility in southeast Kansas — near the borders with Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri — could make it easier for Planned Parenthood to promote abortion to women from out-of-state.

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

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Backers of Marijuana, Casino License Amendments Ask to Intervene in Lawsuit Over Abortion Measure

Abortion, Marijuana, , , , , ,

On Tuesday the ballot question committees backing a marijuana amendment and an amendment to change Arkansas’ casino license laws asked the state supreme court for permission to intervene in a lawsuit over a proposed abortion amendment.

The joint motion to intervene filed by Arkansans for Patient Access and Local Voters In Charge claims that the court’s decision in the lawsuit could affect petition signatures the groups gathered for their respective ballot measures.

The motion says the groups would like to intervene in the lawsuit “for the limited purpose of
addressing whether a sponsor can appoint an agent to fulfill its statutory duties” under Arkansas law.

Last month, Arkansans for Limited Government submitted petition signatures to place the Arkansas Abortion Amendment on the ballot. Bringing the amendment up for a vote would require at least 90,704 valid signatures from registered voters.

However, Secretary of State John Thurston disqualified every petition filed to place the abortion measure on the ballot, because the sponsors failed to provide affidavits that state law requires concerning paid petition canvassers.

By law, ballot initiative sponsors must file a statement confirming that each paid canvassers was given a copy of the state’s initiative and referenda handbook as well as an explanation of relevant state laws before he or she solicited petition signatures. The sponsors backing the abortion measure failed to file this specific documentation when they submitted the petitions for the abortion amendment. That prompted the Secretary of State to reject all of the petitions.

Arkansans for Limited Government subsequently filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Thurston.

The Arkansas Abortion Amendment would change the constitution to prevent the State of Arkansas from restricting abortion during the first five months of pregnancy — which is more extreme than Roe v. Wade and would allow thousands of elective abortions on healthy women and unborn children every year.

The amendment does not contain any medical licensing or health and safety standards for abortion, and it does not require abortions to be performed by a physician or in a licensed medical facility.

It automatically nullifies all state laws that conflict with the amendment — jeopardizing basic abortion regulations like parental-consent and informed-consent requirements.

The measure also contains various exceptions that would permit abortion through all nine months of pregnancy in many cases.

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

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