MAUMELLE, Ark. — The LEARNS Act was officially signed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders Wednesday afternoon, ending a weeks-long discussion on education in Arkansas.
While the 145-page bill includes plenty of changes, educators are still left wanting more.
"Just like other districts, we're anticipating a lot of information coming at us really fast," Superintendent of Pulaski County Special School District Dr. Charles McNulty said. "Now we're going to have to see the rules and regulations that will help guide school boards and our teams in the schools to support all families and their children."
McNulty isn't the only one studying what was left out of the Arkansas LEARNS Act.
"There wasn't enough input from stakeholders, even legislators, nobody really knows how this is going to be implemented," School Parent in the Conway Public School system Jessica Miller said.
Miller is concerned about specific pieces, from implementation to what she considers not enough details on already included aspects.
"To make a change this large, that impacts so many families, and so many schools and not know the first thing about how to implement it," Miller said. "That's unfair to the teachers. It's unfair to the school district... definitely unfair to the students and families."
On Wednesday, we spoke to Arkansas Education Secretary Jacob Oliva, and he said there are still pieces and participants they're looking at when it comes to making this work. The bill's sponsors also told us there are other things that could be discussed at a later time.
"As we focus on things like classified staff, as we focus on just the other increases in budget, that's another great step that we're going to be taking in this legislative session," State Rep. Keith Brooks, R-Little Rock, said.
In Maumelle, McNulty admits there are questions, but all they can do is wait.
"It's hard, again to respond to that," McNulty said. "We just have a framework, and then we're going to have to wait... everybody's working hard, and we appreciate that at the state level, but we're just gonna have to wait and see how the policies and regulations are unfolded."