State Attorney General Tim Griffin has once again rejected an initiative filed by a group hoping to put its Educational Rights Amendment of 2024 on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.
This was the third submission for the group For AR Kids. They are attempting to amend the constitution to require private schools accepting public funding in the form of vouchers to meet the same academic standards public schools must meet, among other changes. Arkansas LEARNS, the K-12 education law passed last spring, created a voucher program that will eventually be open to all students in the state.
The organization’s legal team is reviewing the opinion and will resubmit a revised proposal in the coming days, Public Policy Panel Executive Director Bill Kopsky said Thursday.
Kopsky seemed frustrated that Griffin’s office raised new objections to things they didn’t previously object to.
“They raised none of these objections even though these sections were identical,” Kopsky said. “Raising new concerns about things that have been there since the first draft does not build confidence that we are working in good faith.”
The group said they may consider litigation in the future if they feel there are irreconcilable differences between the Attorney General’s office and the group’s goal of providing every Arkansas student the educational opportunities they deserve.
Griffin’s office must sign off on the proposed ballot title and summary before For AR Kids can begin collecting the more than 90,000 signatures required to put their proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot.
Before submitting their latest ballot title, representatives of For AR Kids met with Griffin to iron out their differences.
“We spent time with the AG and our attorneys and we felt very good about the petition we submitted,” Steve Grappe, executive director of CAPES, said. “Obviously, this is very disappointing and we will regroup and find our pathway forward to advance this to the people for a vote.”
April Reisma, president of Arkansas Education Association, said the rejection was disappointing news for Arkansas’s future.
“We will, of course, take the feedback and incorporate it into a new attempt,” Reisma said. “The students and staff of public education deserve to have the opportunity to thrive, and only with these commonsense best practices will they have the chance to do so.”
The For AR Kids Ballot Question Committee is a coalition that includes the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, the Arkansas Conference of the NAACP, the Arkansas Education Association, the Citizens First Congress, and CAPES.
