This time of year, way too long ago (how???), I would be getting ready for school. I wasn’t overly fond of the place, but didn’t really have choice in the matter. My family couldn’t afford to send me to a private school in Fort Smith, the closest city that had such a thing (which, if I remember correctly for the time, would have been all church schools). We weren’t alone in that, being out in the country. Private schools don’t have to provide transportation, and not everyone lives within a reasonable enough distance (and in accordance with parents’ work schedules) to get their kids to a school without that provision. Luckily for me since I had to go to public school, I had a great bus driver, really the best of the lot, who is fondly remembered by all who knew him. (Bob Mergen, you were a wonder!)
That hasn’t really changed. A report from the Learning Policy Institute (a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational policy research group) in March found that there are 1,084 public schools in Arkansas (about 250 school districts), and an estimated 149 private schools, only 26 of which are nonsectarian (as some parents believe they, not schools, are responsible for their children’s religious instruction, as they should be, in my humble opinion; unless it’s comparative religion study, theology of any kind doesn’t belong in public schools). Of those private schools, 72.8 percent are in urban or suburban areas.
Every Arkansas county (there are 75 of them) has at least one public school district, ensuring that there’s a public school education available for every student in the state. On the other hand, there are multiple counties with no private schools at all. In my home county, kids from poor rural areas would have no choice but public schools unless their families had the wherewithal and time to drive them to Fort Smith every day (in my current county, you could probably throw a rock blindly and hit a private school; apropos since it’s home to the capital).
Oh, but what about those vouchers (oops, sorry, Educational Freedom Accounts, or EFAs)? Considering that so many of them over the first couple of years went to students already enrolled in private school, that seems like taxpayer-subsidization of those who can already afford the tuition. And those grants won’t cover the whole tuition in most places (nor the cost of transporting said children to the nearest available private school), so with parents barely making ends meet, it’s still not really an option.
But, wait, you can homeschool with those funds! Sure, if you don’t have a full-time job and/or you’re educated enough to teach your kids, or can find a micro-school in the area, or tutors. Cindy Thompson of Bella Vista was quoted by reporter Josh Snyder this weekend as saying she was able to find an algebra tutor for her son using EFA funds, and “That is making a huge difference, just the actual quality of education that I can find for my son.”
However, she noted, “Most people still have to buy first out of their own pocket and then be reimbursed, which works great. The process is pretty easy. But not everybody can afford to do that.”
My parents couldn’t. A mechanic and a laundry worker didn’t rake in big bucks then or now. And let’s not even get into the total cost of the LEARNS accounts, which the state can’t reasonably expect to continue to cover in the annual budget. (Arizona should have provided a lesson, but Arkansas failed to heed it.)
There are good parts of the LEARNS Act, of course (mostly hidden by some awful bits in this plan that was cadged from other states and backronymed since the Sarah Sanders campaign started with the acronym first and did not have a somewhat-fully developed idea until she was in office, despite protests to the contrary), but adding new costs on the taxpayers, especially those least able to afford it, chafes me as a poor kid now grown.
I still remember all the debate about the reforms Bill Clinton wanted to make to schools when I was a kid, especially focusing on teacher testing. At that time, I’d already had at least two teachers who probably shouldn’t have been teaching, so it was too little, too late for me, though I was for it. The vast majority of the teachers I had were wonderful (I’m friends as an adult with many of them, and count one as a second mom to me), but those two caused special consternation as they didn’t seem overly concerned with whether we were learning.
If only that lack of concern stopped with them.
Some will point out there’s no dog in the current fight for me since I have no kids, but I’m still a taxpayer. I have no problem funding public schools. I was educated in public schools and a public university (where grants, scholarships and loans paid the bulk of my tuition/room and board). Taking money from public schools (since the money follows the students) doesn’t improve public schools, which still have to pay teachers and staff reasonable wages (most districts, especially rural ones, aren’t going to be full of high-dollar administrators), as well as maintain facilities (not all can afford brand-spanking-new athletic facilities and computer labs every five years or so, and mostly look it).
By this time, there are those shouting, “If money improved public schools, scores would be much better!” There are problems with public schools, yes, and they have many moving parts (recruiting and retaining teachers, community support, etc.), and it doesn’t help that the state not only frequently switches standardized tests (I’m pretty sure ours were through the same company third through 12th grade), but doesn’t require the same tests of private schools, making comparisons between public and private useless.
It’s just more of those double standards that make life not so pleasant if you’re not a white male Christian with lots of disposable income, a private school or access to good tutors near you or a spouse willing and able to homeschool, and no concern that your neighbors might be struggling (even if they manage to wrangle an EFA, they might not be able to cover the overage and other expenses). And remember, private schools can refuse entrance to students, while public schools by law can’t really do that.
This single white female Christian with a mortgage and a lot of other bills has had about enough of that level of non-concern. Let’s at least try to care.
At the very least, don’t just brush off protests about the LEARNS Act as being purely partisan and/or rooted in hatred for MAGA.
Serenity is a fuzzy belly 
A very interesting and complicated topic, education. On paper, I’m a highly educated person, masters degree, but looking back on the road I’ve traveled I can’t help but wonder about the inefficiency of the process. There is rote-learning and there is immersion. At the Naval Academy it seemed like mostly rote because they tried to pack too much into the curriculum, along with mandatory athletics, parades, mandatory chapel (!) and other stuff. That was more a problem for me, a naive kid from a middle of Kansas public school, than many of my classmates who already had a year or two of college or prep school. A few courses were personally interesting to me of course. But, like many so-called prestigious schools, that institution’s high reputation benefitted enormously from its ability to skim the cream of applicants.
Speaking of public education, one of my granddaughters is just this month starting her first job as a middle-school teacher. I was surprised to learn of the many items and supplies (even furniture!) she wants/needs to furnish at her own (read: my) expense.
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One of the political science courses which I took at UALR was taught by a man who was a retired Army officer. While he was still on active duty, he spent a few years teaching at the U.S. Army military academy at West Point. This man tried to run this class and teach the same way he did at West Point. Since most of my classmates were not veterans (unlike me), they did not like the way he ran the class and they complained frequently. Speaking as someone who spent four years in the Navy as an enlisted man, this did not bother me because it was very similar to the way they teach classes and the way they run classes in Navy boot camp or basic training.
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After I was honorably discharged from the Navy, I wanted to put my GI Bill benefits to good use so I started taking classes at UALR. I was a music major and I did enjoy most of the music courses I took. Since they insisted that I must take a few courses in some subject area besides music, I took some political science courses as my “minor”. No I did not enjoy most of the non-music classes but I did like the math classes and a physics class on acoustics.
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If Arkansas cannot cover the total cost of the LEARNS accounts, they can just ask either Glorious Leader and/or Elon Musk for the money since both of them are so wealthy and rich.
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After my father retired from his full time job as a civilian contractor at a Air Force Base in San Antonio, he would volunteer at an After School Homework Center to help schoolkids who did not understand algebra and were having difficulty with algebra. At my father’s funeral, a few people told me that they had passed their algebra classes in junior high and high school thanks to my father’s help.
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That editorial cartoon by Signe Wilkinson reminds me of my late sister-in-law and the church she was a member of for many years. They do not operate a private school but they do seem to think that they are the only real, genuine Christians in Arkansas.
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My former sister-in-law died on Thursday, August 7, 2025 and her funeral and memorial service will be this Saturday, August 16, 2025 at her church.
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I went to public schools and public universities and feel I got the education I wanted. I think any student can get a good education at a public school if they are willing to do the work to get it. As for private and/or religious schools, they’re fine — but not one penny of my tax money should go to support them. If they don’t provide transportation, that’s fine too. Anyone who opts for one should expect to pay their own tuition, their own fees, their own transportation.
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