The first official semester of the LEARNS Act is wrapping up for the school-aged guinea pigs who have been helping to work out the kinks, so let’s talk about it. 

LEARNS was signed into law by Arkansas’ not-so-beloved governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, on March 8 and has been causing nationwide confusion since. 

The main focal point right now is the voucher program. It was promoted as a lifeline for low-income families to have the option to give their children a more “proper education” in regards to public school versus private school. 

However, nothing is ever as simple as it seems, and the LEARNS Act is no exception. 

The voucher system is simply a deception that Gov. Sanders has put a red bow on top to portray it as a gift for the people when, in reality, it is the opposite. 

Families taking advantage of the voucher program are quickly finding out that they could potentially still end up paying thousands of dollars out-of-pocket for their child’s education, depending on the school they choose to enroll in. 

This could lead to quick turnarounds for kids getting a tiny peek at private school life before being sent back to their previous reality, and losing students, even for a short amount of time, could jeopardize public schools that suffer with enrollment numbers as it is. 

While Arkansas just started these programs, other states like Florida and Iowa have been doing similar voucher programs. Both states have seen private schools raise tuition in response to the voucher phenomenon. If schools in areas of lower socioeconomic status, such as Little Rock, see issues like this arise, it could be detrimental for the kids forced to return to a public school that may not even be there in a few years. 

This has already started; the Little Rock school board voted Nov. 9 to combine two schools struggling with declining enrollment.

This could be a major problem for central Arkansas once all students become eligible to apply for vouchers in 2025-2026, endangering the livelihoods of smaller public schools and their communities.

In 2021, according to Data USA, Little Rock had a population of 202,000 people.

With the median household income sitting at $56,928, and 15.6% of the city’s population is in poverty status — three percentage points higher than the national average.

The majority of students participating in the program this year, about 53%, are in central Arkansas, according to the Arkansas Department of Education’s first annual Education Freedom Account report to the state Legislature.

In Conway, only one of the two private schools is participating, St. Joseph Catholic School. 

This year, program eligibility was limited to specific students: students with disabilities, students experiencing homelessness, students enrolling in kindergarten for the first time, foster children, children of active-duty military members and students enrolled in an F-rated school or school in need of Level 5 support.

The participants comprise two major groups: 44% of the students have a disability and 31% are first-time kindergartners. 

It’s likely that as the years progress, more and more students in F-rated schools will begin to take advantage of the seemingly promising opportunity. 

Less than 5% of participants were previously enrolled in a public school according to the ADE’s report. How is a program targeted for public school-goers missing the mark so badly that the majority of students using it are already in private school? 

Once again, Gov. Sanders has found a way to shovel more money into already-wealthy pockets. 

The reality of how the program will run after all factors are in motion in the upcoming years is unclear, but thus far one can hope that all or most of the negative aspects and kinks will be addressed and solved sooner rather than later. 

There are going to be a few bumps in the road, especially regarding how quickly the law was pushed by the legislature.