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CAPES continues canvassing with signature deadline looming

We're less than two weeks away from an important date for the future of the Arkansas LEARNS Act, and canvassers with CAPES have been out collecting signatures.

CONWAY, Ark. — We're less than two weeks away from an important date for the future of the Arkansas LEARNS Act. July 31 means a lot more than just a day for many involved in the future of the act. 

For CAPES, the Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students, it's their deadline for signature collecting.

Those signatures are a requirement to get a ballot initiative in front of Arkansas voters— to let the people decide if the LEARNS Act will stand.

"1,200 signatures, but of course, we're not stopping there," Barbara Satterfield, a canvasser in Faulkner County, said. "We want more, we need more because we want to contribute to the total state percentage."

That percentage is a little under 55,000 signatures from voters around the state, and Satterfield explained that in Faulkner County, they're close to that number.

"Yesterday we turned in 10 petitions, which adds up to 100 signatures," she said, as she pointed to sheets filled with signatures.

The LEARNS Act has been on pause because of a lawsuit in the Arkansas Supreme Court, which argues that the emergency clause attached to the bill wasn't voted on correctly. 

All parties involved have been in a hurry-up mode because if the Supreme Court agrees that that is the case, hundreds of other bills would be affected.

Court documents presented by the state explain that if that happens, that would, "sow chaos and breed confusion."

Canvassers like Satterfield can't afford to wait.

No matter what the court decides, LEARNS goes back into effect on August 1.

That's why she said they'll keep pushing as long as they can.

"We want to do much more than that, we need people to come out because we want to be way over that minimum," Satterfield said. "Minimum isn't good enough for public schools in Arkansas."

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