LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Fresh off of her nationally-televised rebuttal to President Biden's State of the Union address, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders unveiled her long-awaited education program for the state.
Sanders, who was backed by dozens of Arkansans at the State Capitol Wednesday, shared her bold direction for the new Arkansas LEARNS program.
During the address, which lasted roughly 13 minutes, the governor honed in on increasing teacher pay, including larger bonuses for the top educators, and erasing student debt for teachers instructing in "higher need" areas.
"We will offer complete student loan forgiveness for new teachers willing to commit to teaching in Arkansas in the areas of highest need," Sanders said. "And up to $10,000 more in bonuses to our best educators who are making meaningful gains in the improvement of student outcomes."
During the meeting, Sanders also announced that teacher pay will be raised to a starting salary of $50k, which she believes will make Arkansas competitive.
The decision came after Arkansas Democrats originally proposed two bills to raise teacher and staff pay in late January. Those bills included raising the minimum salary to $50k and hourly pay for school employees to $15 per hour.
"Instead of being 48th in the nation for starting teacher salary, we will now be in the top five," Sanders said.
While teacher benefits were a focal point of Sanders' plan, the governor also shared her thoughts on the current state of schools and how to remove deficiencies going forward.
"Despite sending half of our state's budget on education, our kids are falling behind," Sanders said.
To increase student productivity, the governor shared that a bill will be introduced to include $500 tutoring grants, along with a plan that allows high school students to choose a career path.
The plan would have 120 literacy coaches who will work across the state to "maximize student learning."
She also said that the bill will have a working policy against both critical race theory and "sexuality," which she considers to be "harmful material" for students.
"Of course, this bill will make sure our students spend their time in the classroom learning reading, writing, and arithmetic," Sanders said. "We will never subject our kids to indoctrination and we will never ever expose our young children to inappropriate material."
In total, Sanders estimates that the plan could cost roughly $300 million in the first year of its implementation and said that it's coming from funds that the state already had.
The full plan is not finalized yet. However, the governor said the Bureau of Legislative Research is reviewing it before sending it to the legislature.
