A blog for educators, parents, and students devoted to exploring the legal issues surrounding public education in Arkansas and nationwide.
Just a few education bills filed recently that have caught my attention: SB176: This bill proposes to modify the qualifications required for the Commissioner of Education. Currently, the Commissioner is required to hold at least a Master’s Degree and have ten years experience as a teacher, with five of those years being in an administrative …
To some, nothing, which is why it’s probably going to pass, if it hasn’t already, through the Senate Education Committee this morning with flying colors. I’m talking about HB1789, dubbed the Tim Tebow bill in Arkansas and in other states contemplating such legislation, because it allows home-schooled students to participate in public school athletics and …
Today is the filing deadline for all bills for the 2013 legislative session. Of course, there’s still plenty of time to amend the numerous shell bills that have been filed (if you don’t know what a shell bill is, here’s an example – it’s simply a bill filed with only a limited title that can …
Only a couple of education bills caught my eye this week. All in all, with the legislature more concerned about abortions and guns than ever before, this session has been pretty quite with regards to education. HB1528 – This bill designates the Department of Education as the “authorizer” of charter schools in the state. If …
Parent-trigger laws, or laws that allow parents to intervene when their child’s school is failing, have become increasingly popular over the past several years. Though the laws vary by state, the general concept is that a majority of the parents, and sometimes teachers, in a failing school can petition the school district to take a number of different actions, including …
This legislative session, so far at least, has been all about guns, abortions, and the great Medicaid debate. The legislature has already passed Act 67, the Church Protection Act, which allows churches to permit concealed handguns among their pews, and this of course has led to a number of liability questions that must now be addressed through …
Several legislators filed a bill this week to once again lower the amounts future students will receive from the lottery scholarship. The amounts have been lowered every legislative session since the scholarship’s original enactment in 2009 due to continuing lower than expected revenues from the state-wide lottery. The most recent proposal, HB1295, staggers the amount …