Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, The Arkansas Times and KUARFM 89.

Hello everyone, I'm Donna Terrell.

For Arkansas week Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Education legislation is now heading to the Arkansas House of Representatives.

The long-awaited Bill was filed late Monday.

Then on Wednesday the learns act advanced out of the Senate Education Committee and then on Thursday the full Senate approved the bill.

Ahead of the start of debate, Sanders spoke Tuesday in the Capitol Rotunda at an event marking home school day.

For those students that have been trapped in failing schools just because they live in the wrong zip code, this will be a game changer.

And for those parents who want to homeschool their kids but can't afford it, the education freedom account program will finally allow them to give their children the tailored home schooling that they need and, frankly, that they deserve.

Once this legislation passes, and let me be clear, it will pass, we will get the job done.

Education freedom accounts will open up to our neediest families 1st, and in three years it will be available to every family in the state of Arkansas.

But many lawmakers say the process is moving too fast and not allowing adequate time for discussing the specifics.

Joining me to talk about Senate Bill 294, our Senate President, Pro temper, Bart Hester and Republican of Cave Springs, and Senator Clark Tucker, a Democrat in Little Rock.

Thank you senators, so much for joining me to have this discussion.

I guess First off.

You know, Senator Hester, I just want to hear your thoughts about the bill and how it's played out in committee and then how it played out in the Senate.

Well, we're just really excited about the opportunity that we're given to public school teachers and in the in the largest raise probably in the history of our country to public school teachers from 36 to $50,000 minimum.

So we're just really excited for the public school teachers of Arkansas.

We're excited for all students of Arkansas who are going to get opportunity here.

And you know anytime I've learned in politics over 10 years if someone can't argue the merits of the bill they argue process and so that's really the arguments that we're hearing is processed but not merit to the bill so.

This is a great day for teachers and students in Arkansas.

Senator Tucker, would you agree with that?

I think there's plenty to talk about in terms of both substance and process.

I think the process is unprecedented, that this is a major education reform and there's plenty to like in the bill, as Senator Hester said, with future pay raises, which I strongly support.

But the last education overhaul of this magnitude was really in the wake of the Lakeview court decision almost 20 years ago when our current governor's dad was governor.

And at that point they had a special session devoted solely to education, and that lasted for weeks.

This is 144 page bill that was introduced on on Monday and we essentially had one business day to read it on Tuesday before it was litigated in committee on Wednesday and then passed off the Senate floor yesterday.

So I do think that's unprecedented and there are you know again there's a lot that I like in the bill but I do have some concerns and and I'm I'm happy to talk more about those as as our conversation goes on this morning.

Well you know just listening to the sound bite that we aired at the beginning of of this broadcast.

With Governor Sanders, she said that the bill will pass.

She said trust me, it will pass.

And it sounds like Senator Hester, it is going to pass.

I mean, it just sailed right through the Senate, even with a lot of debate.

Well, I shouldn't say a lot of debate, but, you know, a lot of arguments, a lot of yelling, you know, a lot of people concerned about different aspects of this.

Do you have any concerns at all about what some of the people are saying about this and.

How they feel it could actually hurt teachers and it could have a a dramatic impact on public schools in a negative way.

You know, I, I, I, I certainly want to listen to all concerns.

And we hear that.

I just do not know how paying teachers 50,000 instead of 36 hurts them.

I heard many teachers make that argument that they fear that that will harm public schools by paying teachers more money.

And I just disagree.

And we're going to continue to focus on paying our teachers what they deserve.

We're going to continue to focus on students.

And virtually everything in this bill is focused on student success, all student success, home school, private school, public schools.

Children, it's focused on student success.

Well, let's talk a little bit about school choice and and and how that can have an impact on students.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but when I think of school choice, and this is outside of homeschooling, when I think of school choice and students having an opportunity to go to private schools, it sounds to me, and again, correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds to me that we're really talking about the diverse areas of the state.

So this would be the heavily populated.

Areas like Pulaski County, Little Rock, Bentonville, Springdale, those areas.

But when you talk about some of the other areas of this state where there really aren't a whole lot of private schools, where is the school choice in that?

Well, the school choice and that is do do you wanna homeschool?

Do you want and I did, I did say outside of home schooling.

So outside of home schooling, where is the school choice for these students?

Well, I think it's, it's coming, right.

There's a process for schools to to to get started.

It's going to take two or three years for those schools.

But when the when the funds are there and the availability is there, I assure you that these schools will pop up and you know, I'm sorry, you can complete your thought.

I thought you were finished.

No, that's it.

I I'm just confident that these schools will will start when there are the resources in the in the rural area.

We're not going to confine kids to a failing school or a situation doesn't work for them just because there's a.

Senator Tucker.

Well, I think just to go off with the governor, the clip of the governor that you showed of children being trapped in failing schools, if you take a map of Arkansas and economic affluence and you overlay it with a map of test scores, they're virtually mirror images of each other.

What what that means is that it doesn't take into account the needs of the child when they show up to school.

And a lot of times when you have a so-called failing school, which is the term the governor used, it's really in an area where there's a lot of low income residents and school choice does not solve for poverty.

Poverty is at the central level of the center of a lot of these issues and made this point on the Senate floor yesterday.

But there's one charter school operator here in Pulaski County, Mahoning County, called academics.

Plus they have one elementary school in Maumelle that has 23% of kids that are low poverty, and that school gets an eighth grade from the Arkansas Department of Education.

Same operator, same curriculum, same devoted teachers.

They have a school on Scott or 69% of the kids are low income and that that school receives ad from the Arkansas Department of Education.

So school choice does not solve for poverty.

And as you mentioned, Donna, this is kind of more, at least for now, geared toward high population areas like Pulaski County where I live and where I represent in the Senate and Pulaski County, we have 134 publicly funded schools by 19 different operators.

So we already have quite a bit of school choice here in Pulaski County that does not include, to your point, home school or virtual school.

And we've heard a lot of discussion this week about how our current school system has failed Arkansas students while our current.

System has a whole lot of school choice, so we've heard a lot of talk about school choice, but that in and of itself does not improve education or solve for poverty.

Senator Hester, how do we solve the, the, the poverty issue and does this bill address that at all?

Well, this is an education bill, not a poverty bill.

And we're and we're doing a lot on both of those issues and we're going to continue to focus on the on the students and really we're not going to.

Confine them to an area based off their ZIP code or because it's failing, or we're going to allow each parent to determine what is very best for their child.

And it may be that they want to go to that school, right?

I I'm from.

I'm from a rural area, I'm from green forest.

And I would have never wanted to be anything other than a green forest tiger, even if there was other options in in my school district or in my area.

And that's what's going to be the best fit for most students in Arkansas is our public schools.

But it is not the best fit for every student.

And that's what we have to realize that students do not.

You can't.

They don't all fit the same box in the same scenario, even students from the same families.

So we've got to give families the ability to know where their students should go and what the best education is.

I've got some families in my district that a kid goes to private school, kid goes to home school, and a kid goes to public school that will work best for them.

And we're allowing that for every student in Arkansas, not just the students with families with means.

And, and Senator Hester, you said that the vast majority of students would potentially.

Go to public schools.

You don't think this bill hurts public schools in any way?

No, I think it's a it's a great thing for public school, right when you're paying your teachers more.

It's the largest single increase in public school spending in the history of Arkansas.

I mean, I just don't understand how when you were just we are just sending tons more money into public schools.

How people claim it hard that it's hard for public schools.

The reality is there are some public schools that are scared to be challenged.

I would ask them why do kids want to leave your school?

Why are you scared that students are going to leave and money is going to leave your school?

And if and if you need to really understand if they're going to leave your school.

Figure out why and fix it.

Competition is healthy for everyone involved.

I'm in northwest Arkansas.

I put our public schools up against any public schools in the country.

We also have great private schools, and my kids choose to homeschool 3 weeks or three days out of the week and they go to a private school two days.

That's the choice that works for my family.

And, and, you know, and and I'll be honest with you, I don't think anyone's going to argue over paying teachers more.

I think the vast majority of people feel like teachers should make more money.

But let's just talk about the Fair Dismissal act for teachers.

Removing that, there's been a lot of pushback from teachers saying, you know, you this bill shouldn't do that.

And I think, you know, even bigger than that, when we look at this bill, there's so much good in it.

Just based on what people are saying about it.

And then there are others that are saying, yeah, but you, you, you snuck in all of that stuff that's not so good.

Like like the the, the Fair Teacher Dismissal Act.

Yeah, I'm hearing from teachers.

They are so grateful that that we're putting that in, and they're grateful because they're saying I'm giving an A+ effort.

I'm doing the very best I can.

A teacher across the hall for me is lazy or not doing their job and we're making the same money.

And so I'm hearing from teachers that they are, they are happy about this being removed because they know, the teachers that know that they're working hard and they're doing an excellent job, have no concerns, and then they also can be rewarded for their great work.

Senator Tucker, do you agree with that?

I don't.

I think I've heard from hundreds of teachers who are extremely concerned about the removal of the teacher Fair Dismissal act because especially when you pair it with some of the other language in the bill, that is not great about indoctrination, which I think is an insult to teachers.

There's no indoctrination taking place in the state of Arkansas.

But when you remove any due process for a teacher to be fired, which is really what the teacher fair Dismissal Act is, there's they're worried that something they say in their classroom might get their might cause them to lose their jobs.

I now have no recourse because as the bill stands right now there is no due process for any public school employee teacher or otherwise when they either lose their job or or when it comes time for contract renewal on the summer.

I mentioned.

I will say real real quick Donna I'm working with the governor's office on making sure that there is some bare minimum due process in for teachers in public school employees and and and to their credit they are open to including that in the bill and an amendment when it gets to the House.

So I do think that's going to get in there.

I'm hopeful about that.

It's not as strong as the teacher fair dismissal and and that's where I was was going with that.

For you, Senator Hester, when this gets to the house, that particular aspect of the bill may look different.

Do you think it should based on on everything that you've heard from the teachers who support it to the teachers who don't?

Do you think there might be a little revision that needs to happen to that aspect?

I I do not think there needs to be a revision at all.

I think excellent teachers that know they're doing a good job and working hard have nothing to be concerned about.

And I think they want there to be consequences for those that are that are dragging down their school or their hall.

So it is possible that we will consider an amendment to that language, but the reality is it's not necessary.

In Arkansas are right to work state, and those that are working hard and doing an excellent job simply have nothing to worry about.

Let's talk about funding this, this, this, this bill.

From all accounts what I've read $300 million in the first year.

But as more students become eligible for this and and Senator Hester you've alluded to how more students will be able to come on board that second year this could go as high as 343 million.

So when you when you look at it from that perspective.

Wow, that's a lot.

It it it it is a lot of money and it shows how much we care.

But it it is shocking to me.

For the first time in more than a decade, I hear my colleagues from the other side of the aisle scared.

We're spending too much money on public education, but I reject their opinion of that.

We're spending the right amount of money.

Our kids are worth it, our teachers are worth it, and we're going to find a way to find this money.

We have the money, we're going to prioritize it in our budget because we value our teachers and our students.

And I reject the other side of the aisle position that we're spending too much money on our kids and and I don't think anyone would.

Argue that except when you say public education, we're spending this money on public education.

We're actually spending this money on more than public education.

We're spending it on private education and home schooling.

Well, again, that is absolutely true.

But you know, I I'm talking about 90 to 95% of the money and you want to talk about 5%.

I'm happy to do that.

There's a small percent of our, of our, of our money that that's going to education that will go to private schools and home schools.

And it absolutely should, and I would argue more should go to private schools and home schools.

But if you want to talk about the 5% rather than 95%, I'm happy to do that.

The reality is this is the largest increase in public school funding in the history of our state.

It's the largest increase in education spending in the history of our state senator.

Tucker, is it really 5% and 95%?

No, it's not.

And and in year one and two of the of this legislation, there it is the the growth is managed in in a reasonable way.

Even if I disagree with that, I will acknowledge that it's a cap in the first year of 1.5% of the student population and in the second year of three, 3% of the student population to use the so-called education freedom accounts.

But then in year three, as senator himself mentioned, it'll be open to every single family in Arkansas.

And this is where it could really be devastating to public schools.

And let me say for the record, I don't oppose.

A single dollar that's being invested in public education in this legislation, whether it's teacher pay or the focus on literacy, I support all of that.

It's it's really the concern that it could be much more than 5% in the third year and beyond it.

And let me mention this too.

There are a lot of families who may not be able to afford the difference between what they receive from their education freedom account and and the private school tuition that exists out there.

And what we've seen in other states that have created this is that somewhere between 75 and 90% of families who take advantage of vouchers were families who are already sending their kids to private school in the 1st place.

So in a sense it's like a credit to the families who already could afford private schools, but the families who can't.

Sure, they might get $6000 toward private school tuition, but they can't afford the difference.

So it's really not doing much for them anyway.

So it's a huge drain on the state, on state funds for people who don't really need it in a way that also drains not just state dollars, but money from public schools.

And that's that's really the large scale concern.

You know, I've, I've, I've heard some of your constituents, both of both of your constituents raise some amount of concern, or at least maybe not concern.

That's probably a strong word.

But just questions you know Governor Sanders comes along and and and now this here we are with this omnibus bill.

But some wonder what's been going on with Arkansas schools I mean have does someone drop the ball it's it's you know our state has been led by Republican Senator Hester you've been in in politics a very long time what's been going on that all of a sudden we need this massive massive.

Overhaul.

Well we've we've been fighting for 10 years to get this done.

I mean from the very first time I was elected we've been trying to get this done for a decade.

But you know the holdover from the from the other side of the aisle has just been it's been too great to overcome until now.

You know we now have a leader that that believes in taking care of all students not just some students.

And so now as you see when you've got a leader in place like Governor Sanders who's committed to all students of Arkansas, you you just see a change like this and I'll talk back about the funding like I did a few minutes ago we we suspect.

Like in some other states, about 6 1/2% of students will will choose this once the program gets stabilized and with that they only get about 90% of the funding that that that is offered to public school kids.

And then all the other funding like the foundation funding doesn't come along with it.

So I'm very secure that a very small percentage of our overall education funding will be will be spent on home school and private school.

But I don't care if it's a great percentage, it's been on home school and private school I think equal amounts to.

Equal kids, every kid should be worth the same amount when it comes to educating.

And I don't care what the percentages look like, as long as it's equal to each student.

We have less than a minute.

So, Senator Tucker, I'm going to leave it with you.

What are the what are your final thoughts on this?

Well, I I think to your last question, we have needed major education overhaul reform.

I mean the the literacy rate for kids in 3rd grade is abysmal and there's no arguing that and so there's a lot to support in the bill.

We we really need to start at birth strengthen early childhood education.

There's some of that in this bill.

I'd like to see more of it strengthen K12 education.

But it really comes down to working on that poverty issue that I mentioned earlier that's to have a different way of measuring success and and focusing on students at discuss some of that.

But there's a there's a lot more to do.

But the indoctrination, the teacher fair dismissal and the draining of resources for public schools are the concerning parts of this legislation.

Well, guys, I'm going to have to leave it there.

Senator Bart Hester and Senator Clark Tucker, thank you so much for joining me, talking about a very important subject, education in Arkansas.

Thank you so much.

And coming up, we will take a look at a plant nursery specializing in hydroponic farming.

Stay with us.

I grew up in a farming community in Newport as a young boy and my grandparents, they had an acre farm, which is a lot, you know, aunts and uncles, and everybody came over and farmed.

It's just it was ingrained in US.

My name is Rob Galloway.

We're at the nursery here in Little Rock, AR.

We are a nursery that has a farm component to it.

We're the only hydroponic and home brew supply store in Central Arkansas.

It's merged the the farm with with with the residential retail sales and I've been telling a lot of people that you know we're we're trying to just farm and trying to teach people to farm that's really my goal here all of our lettuce production and and and those foods are grown with hydroponic nutrients.

So I'm supplying the nutrients to the water.

Hydroponics is really just growing plants in a soilless medium.

I mean it can be just Rockwool Coco core and any kind of I mean just pebbles you know so you just put the plant into the medium.

And then you get the water with nutrients in it.

So that's really all it boils down to.

It's lettuce.

It's, it's, it's, it's leafy greens, you know, right now.

And so we can do you know, Bibb lettuce, romaine lettuce, all the curly ones, all the red ones, you know, collard greens, turnip greens.

We can do bok choy, Swiss Chard, herbs, anything you really want to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini.

I've done pumpkins, watermelons.

We sell to some restaurants here locally, any kind of food bank or any kind of nonprofit.

And the purpose of farming is great because you're bringing something to life, you're managing it.

You're you're you're sharing it with others, you're bringing people together.

It has a lot of the boxes that you check.

So in hydroponics, we're really a water quality control company, you know, that's why I kind of look at it if if my water is great and then my plants are happy, you have to start with your source water and you just make sure that the pH is balanced.

So then you add your nutrients.

If it's too much, you're gonna make them sick.

And if you starve them to death and don't put enough nutrients in the water, then they're gonna do the same thing this will start to do.

So you find that magic number for whatever crop you're growing, and then you get the right amount of nutrients in there.

Shooting for a target around 1516 hundred.

I have a little knacker elements called deep lawns.

Lawns would be lights, air, water and nutrients and seeds.

You have to have all of those to grow plants right?

And then the deep would be these disease energy equipment and test.

Those are some of the critical failure forms right?

Those are some of the things going to take out your farm.

You're going to have success if you just do the basic water things right.

Just trial and error and DIY.

Few cycles of just doing the water, seeing how it goes.

My plants aren't growing, you know, they're they're short, they're not doing right, they're sick, and it's really you just start diagnosing the symptoms at that point.

Online it's there's a million videos out there.

This is just basic 101 stuff, I mean, and people will have success with it.

It's just going to be how much yield based on your your farm, which could be your bedroom or 25 greenhouses.

On a home level, you know hydroponics can be as grandiose as you would want it, or as simple as you want it.

You can have it just so it's on a rack on a table, on a shelf where the plant just sits in the water.

One plant, or you could scale it to a sands Rath.

You could get off the shelf and then put 150 plants on there so you can scale it to whatever you want to at home.

A2 foot by 6 foot rack with four shelves, you can get 36 plants harvested on one shelf.

So if you dedicate two of those shelves for your grow space, you can get 72 plants on there.

So really, you know, 20 plants a week would not be out of the question, 30 plants a week, 40 plants a week.

It's just really how well you are at and managing your tool as a farmer.

If you talk about what's important in hydroponics, it uses 90 to 95% less water, right?

I mean we are in drought issues.

The second one is that it opens up all boundaries.

You can grow when the soil is not good, if it's rocks, if you don't have the land etcetera, all of those things.

But the third one is really just going to be about the quality.

The report say that your, your produce can lose 50% of its nutritional value within the 1st 24 hours of being harvested.

We can harvest it today and get it to you.

Hydroponics can bring that step closer to you're getting more nutritional values from it.

With with the hydroponic, you'll get faster yields.

You know you're gonna get a bigger plant that grows faster, that's healthier, and then it can be harvested whenever you want it.

Another thing Hydroponics does is get you indoors those extra levels of protection from these crazy weather swings we're having right now.

If you're into tech stuff, I mean I'm, I'm into automation.

And so all my farmers getting built around automation, you know, from my farm, I can manage all of my inputs of the sun, the shade cloth, the fans, my flow meters, my pumps, my lighting, my and then they're telling me too if my water nutrients are wrong, it'll dose it for me.

So the redundancies getting put into place, so it really increases yields by decreasing some of the symptoms because you can catch them earlier.

Right now, we make a really good product.

We we keep our nutrient levels constant.

You know, we keep all this system constant and there's only like three of us working here at this nursery.

That's it.

I'm seven days a week.

I mean 1000 plants a week is totally doable in this greenhouse with one person and moving a lot of customers through here is doable with one or two people.

Some of the challenges that we face in in hydroponics industry is just getting people to adopt it, just getting them to do it at a home level.

Hydroponics what it does is it opens up boundaries and you know if you don't have big money and and and big opportunities and you can't go get big land, do you have a spare bedroom?

We can provide for our families by growing and we can start at our home and start growing individually then you can help your neighbors.

People are wanting to try to get into farming and this is a great way to do it without spending a lot of money and if you don't have those big deals, like we said, you can go and start in your home.

This segment of good roots is made possible by support from Acre Trader.

And that concludes our program.

I'm Donna Terrell.

Thanks for joining me.

I'll see you again next week.

Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, The Arkansas Times and K KUARFM, 89.