LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed another executive order Thursday that focuses on the academic and financial planning processes.
"Arkansas's existing academic and financial planning processes create significant administrative burdens for local school districts, encourage inefficient spending, exacerbate bureaucratic waste and detract school officials from more critical education priorities," Sanders said in a press release.
Currently, the academic and financial planning processes operate independently. Sanders wants to develop a more unified and streamlined system for local school districts to apply for federal and state funding.
"Consolidating these processes into a single, comprehensive application and planning framework will ultimately lead to higher student achievement," Sanders said. "Intelligent planning can help identify specific state laws, regulations, bureaucratic rules and red tape that needlessly complicate school district operations and hurt students."
Sanders said the unified application will be operational for the 2024-2025 budget cycle. The new system applies to all state and federal funding programs and combines all plans and budgets into a single application: one plan and one budget.
Before launching the unified application, the Secretary of the Department of Education Jacob Oliva will:
- Conduct a review to identify out-of-date, unnecessary, or otherwise burdensome state laws, regulations, reporting requirements and processes that play to public schools, officers and employees. This review will include considerations and input from educators, advocates and families.
- Recommend to the governor and/or the state board of education executive orders, statutory changes, or regulatory reforms to empower schools, reduce bureaucracy and improve student achievement
- Establish a process whereby, as part of the annual planning and application process, school districts may submit feedback to the department for any overburdensome and redundant state laws, regulations, reporting requirements, or processes.
This executive order contributes to Sanders' overall education reform plan, something the governor has said is her main focus.
Sanders wants to create a comprehensive plan for education reform in Arkansas that includes, improving literacy, expanding childhood education, expanding charter school opportunities and updating security precautions in schools.
She has already signed nine other executive orders, including a ban on teaching critical race theory and removing Latinx from state documents.