Arkansas Advocate

The LEARNS Act is a 2023 law that made sweeping changes to Arkansas’s K-12 education system. Among other things, the law raised the state’s minimum teacher salary to $50,000 and created a school voucher program called the Educational Freedom Account program, which allows state funds to be used for allowable education expenses such as private school tuition. In a lawsuit filed June 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, four parents and legal guardians of public school children argue the EFA program violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because “it aids in the establishment of religions” by providing state funding to private schools operated by religious organizations. The program also violates the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it discriminates against low-income families who cannot afford private school costs, families in rural areas where there are fewer private schools, and students with disabilities because private schools are exempt from the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, according to the complaint.