During a press conference on the House steps on Wednesday, February 8, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders revealed her LEARNS initiative while surrounded by Republican lawmakers. It was the first public look at the governor’s planned reforms for public education, which include a dramatic expansion of the state’s limited voucher program and a repeal of the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act. The press and public were provided a onepage overview of the highlights but no legislation—because there was no legislation filed. And as of this writing Tuesday morning, there’s still no legislation filed. Opponents of vouchers did find things they could support among the reforms, including increases in teacher pay and efforts to improve literacy, but diving into the few details provided, it seems like a number of the components touted at the governor’s press conference already exist in state code. One thing of note about the teacher- pay portion: Republicans bumped their minimum teacher salary to $50,000 to match the minimum pitched by Democratic lawmakers in the RAISE Act (HB1268), legislation Democrats filed more than three weeks ago that’s yet to receive a hearing—and it likely won’t at this point. The appropriation got assigned to the Joint Budget Committee’s Special Language Subcommittee, which has met just once this session. Another thing about pay: We hadn’t heard anything about a raise for classified staff until Democratic lawmakers presented SB149 before the Senate Committee on Education last Wednesday. During that debate, a Republican member of the committee publicly confirmed that the LEARNS legislation is set include a pay raise for classified staff. A bit about the timeline here: As of this morning, the Senate Education committee is set to hear the legislation at 9:00 AM Wednesday, potentially setting up a vote of the full Senate as early as this Thursday. That puts the bill in the House Committee on Education as early as next Tuesday, with a vote of the f
