In federal court filings this week, plaintiffs in a lawsuit contesting the validity of Arkansas’ LEARNS Act contended that they have standing in the case and requested that a judge deny a petition to dismiss the case.
A bill passed in 2023 called the LEARNS Act fundamentally altered Arkansas’ K–12 educational system. The law established a school voucher scheme known as the Educational Freedom Account program, which permits public monies to be used for permissible educational expenses like private school tuition, and it also increased the state’s minimum teacher compensation to $50,000.
Four parents and legal guardians of public school students have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas on June 13, claiming that the EFA program violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause because it supports the establishment of religions by giving state funds to private schools run by religious groups.
According to the complaint, the program also discriminates against students with disabilities because private schools are exempt from the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, low-income families who cannot afford the costs of private education, and families in rural areas where there are fewer private schools, in violation of the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. According to the complaint, the scheme is also discriminatory as private schools are not subject to the same regulations as public ones.
The plaintiffs further contend that because the EFA program forces taxpayers to make contributions to private, religious institutions, it is unconstitutional in Arkansas. In the complaint, the court requests that it rule that the EFA program is illegal and grant an injunction to prevent its execution.
Gwen Faulkenberry, Special Renee Sanders, Anika Whitfield, and Kimberly Crutchfield, the case’s plaintiffs, were also plaintiffs in a different but related complaint that was filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court last summer.
The Arkansas State Board of Education, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Arkansas Department of Education, Education Secretary Jacob Oliva, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, and DFA Secretary Jim Hudson are among the defendants in the federal complaint.
On July 28, the office of the attorney general of Arkansas filed a request to dismiss the case, claiming that the plaintiffs had not stated their allegations and lacked standing. Due to sovereign immunity, which states that the state cannot be sued in its own courts, the AG’s office further contended that the plaintiffs’ claims against the governor had to be rejected.
Attorney General Tim Griffin contends in a brief supporting the request to dismiss that plaintiffs do not declare they are able and prepared to apply for the program if it were not for the claimed discriminatory policy, therefore failing to prove an injury for their equal protection claim.
Griffin argues that the plaintiffs lack standing because the defendants cannot be held accountable for the alleged harm caused by the absence of a private school in their neighborhood, the inability to enroll in that private school, or the inability to pay the tuition.
Griffin further contends that the plaintiffs are unaware of what the federal Establishment Clause forbids, pointing out that parents use state monies to cover costs like as homeschooling and tuition at private schools.
However, they contend that the LEARNS Act violates the Establishment Clause, promotes an excessive government involvement with religion, and advances a religious purpose because some parents choose to allocate those funds to religious institutions (of all kinds), according to Griffin.
Griffin adds that the plaintiffs ignore a lengthy series of Supreme Court rulings that have held that the Establishment Clause is not violated when private individuals allocate public funding to religious organizations.
Because the funding can be used for both secular and religious schools affiliated with various denominations, the attorney general also dismissed the plaintiffs’ arguments that the EFA program violates the Arkansas Constitution by allocating state funds to private schools.
In their response brief, which was submitted on Monday, the plaintiffs contend that they have standing since they are taxpayers who pay taxes to the EFA program at issue and parents of children enrolled in public schools.
By pointing out that Special Renee Sanders is the mother of a student with a disability and would be hesitant to apply for the EFA program because it requires her to waive the rights she and her child have under the federal IDEA law, they refute the state’s claim that the plaintiffs have not been harmed.
According to the brief, states are providing an educational curriculum that gives children with disabilities unequal access, which raises constitutional concerns because access is not restricted in the same way for kids without disabilities.
The plaintiffs claim that the ability of parents to allocate EFA funds to a specific school is an attempt to get around the limitations outlined in Article 2, Section 24 of the Arkansas Constitution and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Plaintiffs contend that since the majority of participating schools are religious, it is impossible to distinguish between the benefits to the student and the sectarian school, and that the main beneficiaries of the LEARNS Act Voucher Program are not the students but rather the schools themselves, who serve as a means for the schools to receive funding.
In addition to issuing a scheduling order that provides a sufficient amount of time for discovery, motions, and a final hearing, the plaintiffs urged the court to reject the move to dismiss on all counts.
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