From Capitol Gains to Cannabis Pains: The Week in Review

Current Events,
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Here’s a quick recap of the week’s top stories from Family Council and our friends:

From Family Council

🍎 Arkansas’ Educational Freedom Account Rules (What Happened and What Comes Next): Over the past several months, Arkansas homeschool families have raised serious concerns about new rules affecting homeschoolers participating in the state’s Educational Freedom Account (EFA) program. Here is a brief recap of how we got to where we are today and where things may go from here. Keep Reading.

🏛️ Bad Homeschool Measure Fails in Arkansas Senate: On Tuesday, the second of two bad homeschool Educational Freedom Account measures at the Arkansas Capitol failed. Keep Reading.

🚨 Arkansas Authorities Continue Seizing THC Products from Out of State: On April 4, a State Trooper discovered approximately 650 pounds of mushroom‑based edible gummies and 718 pounds of THC‑infused gummies during a traffic stop on I-40 in Crawford County. The driver told investigators he was traveling from California to Georgia. Keep Reading.

🚔 CA Authorities Seize 20K+ Illegal Marijuana Plants in Raids: Nationwide, states like California and Colorado have legalized marijuana believing it would help stop illegal drug trafficking, and marijuana’s supporters often claim their laws contain safeguards and oversight to stop criminals. But legalization has actually emboldened drug cartels and spread illegal marijuana on the black market. Keep Reading.

❗ DOJ Report Confirms Biden Administration Weaponized Federal Law Against Pro-Lifers: The U.S. Department of Justice released a report last week confirming what many pro-life Americans have suspected for years: the Biden Administration used the power of the federal government to target and punish people for their pro-life beliefs. Keep Reading.

💰 Louisville Pays $800K After Trying to Silence Christian Photographer: Last month a Kentucky city learned a costly lesson about the First Amendment. Keep Reading.

➡ Kansas Legislature Stands Up for Free Speech, Life, and Families with Laws Similar to Arkansas’: The Kansas Legislature made headlines recently by overriding Governor Laura Kelly’s vetoes of several important bills — such as bills protecting free speech on college campuses, defunding Planned Parenthood, strengthening women’s informed consent laws, and expanding education freedom for families. All of these measures are similar to good laws Arkansas has enacted over the years. Keep Reading.

⛪ New Poll Shows Young Men Are Growing More Religious: Gallup’s latest polling data shows 42% of men aged 18 to 29 say religion is very important to them — up sharply from just 28% in 2022-2023. Gallup draws the odd conclusion from this that “political dynamics may be playing a role in religious changes,” but that may not necessarily be what’s driving these numbers. Keep Reading

From Our Friends

DOJ Indicts SPLC for Fraud — Used Donor Money to Fund Racist Groups. From Daily Citizen.

Senator Tells HHS Secretary Kennedy to Stop Mail-Order Abortions. From LifeNews.

Washington State Receives Strong Warning that Forcing Foster Parents to Promote Gender Ideology is Unconstitutional. From ADF.

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

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Bad Homeschool Rules and More: New This Week

Current Events,
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is weekly-rewind-banner-corrected-1024x165.png

Here’s a quick recap of the week’s top stories from Family Council and our friends:

From Family Council

🍎 State Board of Education Unanimously Approves Rules Despite Homeschool Concerns: Last week the State Board of Education unanimously approved new rules governing Educational Freedom Account spending on athletics despite concerns voiced by homeschoolers. Keep Reading.

🏛️ Two Measures Filed to Restrict Homeschoolers Under EFA Program: Two identical non-appropriation measures — H.R. 1008 and S.R. 16 — have been filed to restrict homeschoolers participating in the Educational Freedom Account (EFA) program. Keep Reading.

☑️ Unpacking EFA Rules, Homeschool Measures at the Capitol: We are urging homeschoolers across the state to call the Arkansas House of Representatives and Arkansas Senate, and ask their lawmakers to oppose H.R. 1008, S.R. 16, and a new set of Educational Freedom Account rules from the Arkansas Department of Education. Keep Reading.

📜 One Bad Homeschool Measure Fails at Capitol: On Wednesday, H.R. 1008 failed in the House Rules Committee. After testimony from the measure’s sponsor and questions and answers from the lawmakers, the proposal failed to receive a “Do Pass” motion from the committee members. Keep Reading.

🥼 Study Links Marijuana to Lung Cancer Risk: Across the U.S., many states have legalized marijuana either for “medical” or “recreational” use, but a growing body of scientific research reveals marijuana is actually much more dangerous that many people realize. Keep Reading.

❔ Study Shows Marijuana May Trigger False Memories: A recent study shows marijuana may actually trigger false memories in users. Keep Reading.

🥼 CDC Data Shows Fertility Rate in America at an All Time Low: Public health data released last week shows the fertility rate in the U.S. dropped to an all-time low last year. Keep Reading.

💉 Study Shows Mental Health Problems Surge Among Adolescents Subjected to Sex-Reassignment: A recent medical study out of Finland shows adolescents subjected to sex-reassignment face much higher risk of mental illness. Keep Reading.

🟰 How HRC’s Corporate “Equality” Index Harms Children: You may be surprised to learn that when you picked up that matte red lipstick at Ulta, you were helping fund cross-sex hormones for gender-confused kids. Or that when you ordered that chicken al pastor with extra guac at Chipotle, you were subsidizing IVF and surrogacy, which is intentionally creating children who will be separated from their mother or father. Keep Reading.

💰 FDIC Bans “Reputation Risk” Policies Used to De-Bank Conservatives: Last week the FDIC issued a final rule eliminating “reputation risk” policies that financial institutions used as an excuse to debank conservatives. Keep Reading.

📃 Family Council Joins Letter Urging DOJ to Address Abortion Drugs: On Monday, Family Council joined a coalition of pro-life leaders from around the nation in a letter urging the U.S. Department of Justice to address abortion drugs. Keep Reading.

From Our Friends

Florida Threatens to Sue Miss America for False Advertising Over Definition of ‘Female’. From Daily Citizen.

Biden Prosecutors Knowingly Withheld Evidence When Targeting Pro-Life Americans. From LifeNews.

HHS rep: FDA still intends abortion pill review to finish ahead of schedule. From Live Action.

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

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Unpacking EFA Rules, Homeschool Measures at the Capitol

Home School, , ,

We are urging homeschoolers across the state to call the Arkansas House of Representatives and Arkansas Senate, and ask their lawmakers to oppose H.R. 1008, S.R. 16, and a new set of Educational Freedom Account rules from the Arkansas Department of Education.

Call your senator: You can call 501-682-2902 between 8:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. to leave a message asking your state senator to oppose these measures.

Call your representative: You can call 501-682-6211 between 8:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. to leave a message asking your state representative to oppose these measures.

Here is more information about how these measures would affect homeschoolers.

H.R. 1008 and S.R. 16 Restrict Homeschoolers Under EFA Program

H.R. 1008 and S.R. 16 would restrict homeschoolers participating in the Educational Freedom Account (EFA) program.

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, and many homeschool families have benefited from it.

H.R. 1008 and S.R. 16 would significantly reduce EFA funding for homeschoolers and implement mandatory assessment scores for students participating in the EFA program.

It would also expand the list of mandatory reporters to include education service providers who work with homeschoolers.

These proposed laws are homeschool control measures dressed up as accountability measures. They turn educational freedom into a state compliance program. The State is using EFA dollars as a way to standardize and regulate homeschooling rather than provide parents the freedom to tailor the education that is best for their children.

You can read our entire policy brief about these laws here.

The 2026 Educational Freedom Account Rules Stop Homeschoolers from Using EFA Money for Certain Team Sports

New rules from the Department of Education would prohibit Educational Freedom Account 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 extracurricular spending 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 new rules go farther by prohibiting all spending on team sports that require tryouts.

The rules also limit EFA balances. Right now, EFA funds can roll over each year up to a maximum balance of $20,000. But the new rules 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.”

Lawmakers could vote very soon on whether to approve the Department of Education’s new EFA rules.

You can read our entire policy brief about the new rules here.

Please contact your lawmakers, and ask them to oppose the bad homeschool laws H.R. 1008 and S.R. 16 and the Department of Education’s bad EFA rules.

You can call 501-682-2902 to leave a message asking your state senator to oppose these measures.

You can call 501-682-6211 to leave a message asking your state representative to oppose these measures.

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

READ MORE