The vocal minority voting against the LEARNS Act in recent weeks includes not just Democrats, but a few Republicans.
The vocal minority in Northwest Arkansas contains all the Democrats in office with a few, like State Senator Bryan King, Republican of Greenwood, who serves a largely rural district with several small school districts, across the counties he serves.
He issued a long statement, but a strong and reasoned nonpolitical approach, why he opposes the LEARNS Act.
But first, let's hear from those closer to Washington County, like State Representative David Whitaker of Fayetteville, whose district includes both Fayetteville and Farmington School Districts.
"I voted NO on the so-called LEARNS act primarily because it allows for a massive transfer of public funds to private schools and homeschoolers, with none of the accountability measures or academic standards that govern our public schools," writes Whitaker in an email on the question.
After 10 years in Little Rock, Whitaker's answer was strong. It continues:
"It (the LEARNS Act) was also very clear that this massive 'omnibus' bill was vague, incomplete and riddled with errors."
"Add to that, the fact that when the choice 'caps' come off in year three, not even the bill's supporters can tell you how many hundreds of millions of dollars will be pumped out of the public treasury," Whitaker wrote.
He ended his short, but strong, reply with: "Rural school districts will be particularly hard hit by the resulting funding shortfalls."
State Senator Greg Leding, who also represents Fayetteville and a part of the Springdale School District, on his legislative blog has written about the LEARNS Act.
"There are still many, many questions about whether the massive overhaul will work but the bill's backers knew that speed was important, given the strong, bipartisan skepticism. Since the bill included an emergency clause, and the threshold to adopt the clause was easily cleared in both chambers, the law will take effect as soon as the governor signed it..."
Senator King delved into much more detail because he voted no.
"... I ultimately voted against the bill and because it is such an important and far-reaching measure, I owe it to my constituents to explain my reasons.
"The LEARNS Act was an omnibus bill. Like a Christmas tree, it had something in it for everyone. Packaging so many provisions in a single bill was an essential part of the governor's strategy for winning legislative approval.
"As is true with most omnibus bills, there are things in it I can agree with and there are things in it I don't like. Almost every legislator had to make a similar decision as I did, weighing the good versus the bad.
"For me, this omnibus bill drew lines that should not be crossed and therefore I had to vote no.
"Because it crossed those lines, it was too difficult for me to vote yes.
"One example is that no matter how noble the cause, you must be able to pay for it, not just over the next few years but into the future.
"My second cause for concern was how the vouchers were set up. I support vouchers, and I have since 2006. However, the government should not pay them on the front end, as the LEARNS Act stipulates.
"We should only pay them on the back end, after the student has shown a basic level of accomplishment.
"I witnessed the debacle of the Ecclesia College scandal so I worry that vouchers may go to schools that don't have the best interest of the students at heart.
"Without any parameters in the LEARNS Act, I worry about start-ups taking advantage of the system, of parents and of students, in order to turn a quick profit.
"In the Ecclesia case several people went to prison, including college president Oren Paris. To this day the college has never opened its records so we have no idea how public tax dollars were spent."
"Finally, the LEARNS Act was rushed through the legislature far more hastily than I would have liked. School board members, superintendents, teachers and parents were left out of the process. Our children's future prosperity is the ultimate goal so we usually review education bills at length because the stakes are so high," writes King.
Maylon Rice is a former journalist who worked for several northwest Arkansas publications. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.