Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, The Arkansas Times and KU AR FM 89.

Hello and welcome to Arkansas Week.

I'm Dawn Scott.

Thanks for being here.

An Arkansas legislator wants to repeal a law approved during this year's session that will limit local regulations of cryptocurrency mines that have opened around the state.

We'll be joined later in the program by Senator Brian King and Faulkner County Judge Alan Dodson to discuss that law.

It and hundreds of others will take effect on Tuesday, 90 days after the legislature adjourned.

Another new law is the LEARNS Act.

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders education overhaul and lawmakers had intended for it to take effect immediately after a bill signing ceremony back in March.

But a Pulaski County Circuit Judge ruled earlier this summer that the legislature did not follow proper procedure in voting for an emergency clause.

The state is appealing that decision now to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, a group backing A referendum to repeal the LEARNS Act faces a deadline Monday to submit about 54,000 signatures to place it on the ballot.

Amid all that, a new school year begins in just a couple of weeks.

So with a look at where things stand for both private and parochial schools, along with public schools, I'm joined by state Senator Brianne Davis, a Republican out of Russellville and the lead sponsor on the LEARNS Act legislation.

Also, John Rocha, the head of school for Ozark Catholic Academy in the northwest Arkansas city of Tony town, and Laurie Lee, the chair of the Reform Alliance, a nonprofit supporting school choice.

Thank you all for being here.

This is a very difficult topic with many layers, and we're going to cover as much of it as we can today.

A legislative committee last month approved emergency rules for vouchers that will use state funds to cover tuition at private schools.

But with so much in the air, I want to 1st just take the temperature here.

How are you feeling?

Let's start with you, Senator Davis.

Well, I feel really good.

I mean, of course, we anticipated legal challenges and passing a bill that was so comprehensive.

I'm dealing with, you know, the most important topic in the state, which is education.

It impacts the future of our state and the kids across our state.

So I feel good.

I think we're seeing things move along smoothly with implementation of the rules for the education freedom accounts, and I feel very good about what things look like in the future.

And let's get to you, John Rocha, Head of school again for Ozark Catholic Academy.

Tell me what you're thinking today.

How are you feeling as you approach a new school year with all of these variables up in the air with the LEARNS act?

It's been a lot of variables going into the summer, but really as we get to the school year, I feel kind of happy and excited about this opportunity.

So as things have moved on and move and progressed back and forth in the courts, the idea of us having some students, we happen to have 12 students this year that are going to be able to take advantage of their education freedom accounts.

And with that said, that's an opportunity for us from the boots on the ground to see how to work through this process over the next few years until it's fully implemented.

And so I like these small steps and I'm looking forward to it.

It's exciting time for us.

Quickly follow up question for you Mr. Rocha.

Have there been any challenges and in dealing with these twelve students you mentioned, actually no.

Eight of our students were already on the succeed scholarship, so they were already grandfathered into this new program.

So we're really working with about four new applicants and whether they were transferring over or the new applicants, it's been from a parent point of view.

They've called, they asked us questions and it's been a very easy process for them as they've expressed to us.

Very good.

Laurie Lee, I would like to hear from you.

How are you feeling today?

Oh, we're feeling very excited as an organization that helped implement and get the succeed scholarship started back in 2015 with over 1400 students that were served by that program.

Looking at this program that this year could serve up to 7000 is really exciting.

We've had hundreds if not thousands of parents and families call our office excited about the opportunity to find an educational option that better fits the needs of their families.

Have you been able to help them?

Oh, absolutely.

So we've helped process lots of applications, helped a lot of schools get on board and we're very excited about what's coming in the in the upcoming school year in a few weeks, back to you, Mr. Rocha, what have you and and and I know you're in contact with other private schools.

What what have you done to prepare for this moment?

Well, a couple of things that really helped us both at OCA but also parochial schools in the diocese.

The superintendent's office of the diocese has really had some really good webinar programs set up for us to keep us up to date in the process as well as the Reform Alliance group.

So we've, even though there's some overlap in the information that's being said, we can't get enough of it in order to put it into practice.

So that's really helped us in in relation to what are the steps and where should we be doing right now.

But with small other small Christian schools and as well as parochial schools in Northwest Arkansas, we've been talking a lot.

Some of them are cautious because of they're worried about the start and stop process of the law.

But others of us are really stepping forward and trying it.

And let's see, let's take a few students who fit the qualifications right now and let's go forward with it, You know, last week, Governor Sanders spoke about the LEARNS Act July 18th.

It was during a meeting of the Rotary Club in Little Rock.

She did not address the legal challenge, but she said she was pleased with how this has come together.

Let's take a look.

But we set out and spent a tremendous amount of time traveling the state, frankly, traveling the country, talking to stakeholders, looking at what other states were doing that was working that we weren't, and really took a completely comprehensive approach to transforming the status quo.

I don't know if anyone here was satisfied, but I certainly wasn't with seeing our state continue to be 48th and 49th and 50th, frankly in every category that not only I want to be first and 2nd, but I know we're capable of being there.

And so we built what I think is one of the most transformative education reform packages, certainly in our state's history, but probably anywhere in the country that will really lift every student up and make sure that they have access to that quality education.

I'm very proud of the fact that we worked hard to build a past and now are implementing.

Arkansas learns here in the state that we will be able to see lives changed and students have that greater opportunity and greater access.

So while the new law is expected to go into effect Tuesday, Attorney General Tim Griffin is still pursuing an appeal before the state Supreme Court.

A timeline has been put in place for briefs, if we, if you will, to be filed in August, and Griffin requested that and the court agreed to an expedited appeal.

And I'd like your opinions and thoughts on this.

And let's, let's start with you, Senator Davis.

Well, I think it's important that we finish out this process and understand whether the way that we're voting on our emergency clauses is going to stand up in court.

We feel like it will.

We have decades of precedent in the Senate, the way that we handle our business and our process for how we vote on an emergency clause for bills.

So I think we'll be successful in the end, but I think it'll be good and the relief to everyone to get that ruling.

And has this given you pause at all any of these court challenges?

No, not at all.

The lost sound, I think it speaks to itself that the only thing that a opposition organization could sue on was a procedural organization.

Nothing of substance was brought forward.

And this is the greatest thing in education that's happened to Arkansas probably ever in the history of our state when you've had this massive budgetary line for public schools 250 million in the first years been given to our public schools coaches literacy coaches everything was addressed and and Senator Davis and and Representative Brooks and Governor Sanders did an amazing job and we are so thankful and it will show in our state numbers here in the next few years.

And Mr. Rocha to you.

Any thoughts on on this appeal and before the state Supreme Court, does it give you pause at all or do you just continue marching forward?

We overall we do continue marching forward.

But as I've talked to a few of my parents, a couple of them who qualified for the learns act hesitated in applying and because they were worried about the Start Stop process.

And I said you know what?

I said let's just take small steps and let's keep going.

And some of our parents have chosen not to apply this year who have qualified just because of their nervousness of it.

But I really think that this is an exciting time, and I think this is a big step for education in Arkansas overall for both public, private and parochial schools.

So I'm looking forward to it being implemented.

And to you, Laurie, who who qualifies and and how many vouchers have we received so far?

So there are 7 categories I'm going to probably miss one Special needs children, homeless children, children of active duty military children in foster care, Children that come from F schools or or or intensity 5 level school districts and kindergarteners.

This school year, it's been my understanding that there have been 5100 students make application as of today.

And so that's be, I mean as the organization that's been advocating for school choice for over 20 years, if we'd have gotten to 3000 or 3500, I would have been ecstatic.

I don't think anyone in the nation really thought that we would get to fight and it's not over.

We still have four or five days, so who knows?

But right now there have been 5100 students that have made application and so that's very exciting times 51 families that have been able to access something that's going to do a better job of helping their kids get what they need.

Have you received pushback at all from from the families who are already established, say at a parochial or private school saying, hey, we pay, you know, now you know you're giving money to these people where we've been paying tuition all along.

Have you, have you received any of that so far?

No, we haven't.

I Mr. Roca could probably speak better to that.

But what we've gotten was they can't wait till year three where everybody's eligible.

And so I think people are very excited.

Most people pay state income tax and they're looking forward to the education of dollars that are already allocated for their child being used in a way that they see better fit for their families.

Sure.

You know, and I think there also is a lot of confusion for people.

And I think whenever there's change, it just takes parents and children a minute just to get there.

But it's it's so nice to hear that there's been such great, great, great response.

What if there's not a private school, though, near a child who qualifies to it to attend?

What do we do then?

I think that will change over time.

I know not every community has a private school across the state.

Many do.

But I think over time as this becomes part of our educational system in Arkansas and that will see some of those private schools pop up in places or maybe there's less population or there's not a private school now.

And I think we'll start seeing those educational needs met across our state.

That's actually been a benefit of a lot of the programs across the nation in different states that private schools have been in, been able to move into territories and areas where they normally haven't been because there haven't been a base of people that could have paid the tuition.

I do want to get to to Capes, the Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students there's a the final push to collect signatures.

This group wants voters to decide the futures of the LEARNS Act.

They have to get 54,000 signatures of verified voters by Monday's deadline.

And if enough of those are valid, the group of of course will get it an additional 30 days to collect more signatures.

What what are you your thoughts on this, Senator Davis?

Well, I think that people are a little bit confused about what's going on, just the general public and what exactly they're signing when they sign the petition.

And so I think there's when they're, you know, asking people about signing the petition, they're saying, well, we want people to decide if you want LEARNS or not.

They're not saying this is a repeal of the LEARNS Act.

If you sign this, that is what we're trying to get on the ballot.

And I think that a lot of people signing it don't necessarily understand that because it's not being explained to them in that way.

And I think that's something I'd love for people to be cautioned about and know exactly what they're signing.

That this group is trying to overturn LEARNS.

They are trying to overturn the new starting teacher salary at $50,000 when adjusted for cost of living, puts us at #1 in the country and starting teacher pay.

They're trying to reverse literacy coaches for kids.

And there is no county in the state of Arkansas that has over 50% of their third graders reading at grade level.

That's a problem.

We have got to do something different.

So when you talk about tapes and repealing learns, they are trying to overturn learns completely.

And I think that's something that maybe the citizens don't necessarily know when they're signing that petition.

All right.

Senator Brianne Davis, Republican out of Russellville.

Thank you.

Laurie Lee, the chair of the Reform Alliance, we appreciate you.

And of course, John Rocha, the head of school for Ozark Catholic Academy.

We appreciate your perspective today.

Thank you all so very much.

There will be more to come, and we'll be back with more.

Welcome back.

A new state law takes effect next Tuesday that limits regulations local governments can impose on cryptocurrency mining facilities.

Those are essentially large computer servers used to solve complex equations, but they also emit a very loud, high pitched level of noise due to large fans and cooling systems.

In advance of this new state law, several counties and cities have been rushing to pass their own laws to protect the people who live or work near these sites.

Now joining me, Senator Brian King, a Republican out of Green Forest, and Faulkner County Judge Alan Dodson.

Thank you both for being here.

Such an interesting topic here and one that maybe years ago we never knew we'd be here discussing.

But I want to start, you know, first with you, Senator King, you're the chair of the Senate Committee on Children and Youth.

You held a hearing Monday in Harrison where one of these facilities is located.

And what are your concerns?

Well, number one, as far as the chair of the meeting, we had it on the the topic of children's centers.

We have that.

We had the college right across.

As we've seen now we don't really know much about these crypto mining facilities, but we're learning a lot more unfortunately from the back end.

And so it's kind of like we're chasing the rabbit now after the legislature let a bill out that I feel like they shouldn't have and gave it more debate.

But it was about the concerns of that and it you know it, it allowed citizens to in Harrison where we had a big controversial issue and the conditional use permit was denied to have a voice and try and have understand more about it.

We had two industry experts are in the field here that gave testimony.

So it's something that quite frankly, we're learning a lot more now than we did before because like you said, we just didn't have to deal with these things before.

Well, Faulkner County Quorum Court recently passed its own law to protect its county residents from the noise.

Specifically, there is a cryptocurrency mine near Greenbrier within Faulkner County.

Not a lot to see if you want to take a look here, just a large fence under power lines.

But what you don't see is the very loud noise that comes from it.

Judge Dodson, how would you describe it?

I would describe it as a jet airliner at idle on the tarmac at the airport.

You're concerned about this?

Absolutely.

It's one of those things where might be hard to describe with words, but when you see it or in this case hear it, you know it.

And we didn't know this going in.

When we when we brought these cryptocurrency mining sites here to Arkansas, we didn't know that this would be a concern.

Certainly we didn't at the county level.

I know that the state, I'm not sure what the mindset was with the legislature putting a deadline on our local governments that being counties and cities ability to regulate that.

But it was enough of an issue that you saw a a wave of counties and cities rushing to pass local ordinances to control it as best they can.

And I think most, I don't want to speak for all the local jurisdictions, but I can tell you for Faulkner County, we really see this as a stopgap until our state legislators can readdress the issue.

There was a model ordinance, though I understand created by the Association of Arkansas Counties and then distributed to the counties.

But even that is something that you'd like the legislature to oversee.

Absolutely.

We did.

In Fodder County.

We work closely with the Association of Arkansas Counties and their attorneys to draft what we thought would be strong local legislation.

That was fair.

That was not unduly unfair to a pro business environment which we have here in Faulkner County, very admittedly.

But at the same time we wanted to protect that quality of life that we hold dear in Faulkner County.

Can we?

What are we doing here at the at the state level.

Well number one everybody asked me how does this get passed and I was telling them you know I've spent I can first got elect in 2006 whenever we didn't rush bills through as much I mean it was more slower process where you had an informed vote as a legislator.

I just want to make an informed decision and we just didn't get the opportunity run it late in the session passing out of committee passing within hours.

So we did not get an informed decision on this.

And so it's put the cities and counties.

And I feel like you know the other question that keeps getting asked over and over again is how does this one little sliver industry that really no one knows much about and now has more protections than a Barber, than a farmer, than a backhoe operator.

I mean after August 1st and we don't know the legal ramifications of what the legislature did and that's where the legislature really quite frankly in the process of passing bills that you don't know don't have time to read it, shoving bills through that that we have put this on cities and counties and we really shouldn't have.

I hope that we can sit here and if a special session happens that we address is these things use a tremendous amount of energy.

You know a 10 MW facility in a crypto may only employ two or three people.

You know from my understanding of of electrical or electricity cooperatives and and industry people that that's enough to power 7000 homes.

So we have to have the debate is this really an economic benefit to us with the amount of energy they use.

We've always had articles sent to us in Washington.

Time has found an article where they're warning about possible blackouts brownouts, you know we're getting at.

Our energy policy right now is not kept up and with the amount of energy they use and the concerns of the actors in the in the Harrison situation, we spent a.

Part of the legislature addressing the Chinese influence on on the Tick Tock or drones and yet now you see Chinese companies coming in and putting these facilities up very quickly before people even know what happens.

You voted for this bill, you now want a special session called what was the advantage to bringing it here?

What is the dollar amount that we're getting from this or what advantage do we get?

The only advantage that I see right now so far is the sales tax basically off energy or the property taxes.

And if you look at you know I represent a rural area agriculture energy, if you look at poultry plant and a lot of poultry growers will use 10 megawatts but that may impact 3000 people.

I mean these people are only you know two or three, two or three jobs.

And the other aspect that people are not looking into that I'm starting to look into now is the fact that these are nearer substations.

They they're always buying land close to our substations and for national security threat, we know substations are our electrical grid is a target and we're going to have to look at what actors are buying near these.

And we quite frankly just need to know more before we make an informed decision and that's why 1799 needs to be repealed where the judge and local people get more decision making.

Well, Judge Dodson, I do want to ask you had concern for the consequences of health for people in wildlife potentially.

There have been stories of young people who were bothered by the noise, certainly no medical doctor, but I it doesn't.

You don't have to have a medical degree to to stand next to one of these facilities and realize that would be detrimental to have that 24/7 365, certainly hearing damage and then the impact of stress.

Mentally, there are methods of torture that involve continuous noise for a long period of time.

And if you are next to this facility, there's no mistaking it, Well, for a special session to be called on this, the governor, you know, would have to call it Senator King.

Have you spoken to Governor Sanders?

And what's the likelihood of a session?

I'd say right now it's unlikely, but I've been around enough to know if it's like catching a fish, you got to throw your hook in the water and the possibility of us having a special session on something else is, is quite real.

I think that when we put look at this whole situation, as the judge said, you know what have we really done?

I mean that we really don't know yet till after August 1st and some of these facilities in the testimony and people give that they don't have a noise issue and in some of them do.

And so we're finding out what's the difference between a water cool facility versus a fan facility and and there's just so much we didn't know that basically should have not happened and basically tied the hands of local people.

It's one of those things we're going to know more later.

And what we do need to know is as our security of our system is the amount of energy, the actors involved.

And so that's all concerning.

Let's talk about what we do know, how many facilities do we have in the state of Arkansas right now?

Where are they located?

You know, I really don't know.

I'm asking that question.

We know that we have some in Newport.

We know we have some in down at Malvern.

We know we have this facility out here.

We know that you know somebody I've been getting calls from all over the state now concerns about these because they're praying on situations like rural counties that we don't like zoning.

We like people be able to do what they want.

And you know the the the judge is is probusiness.

What we want to say we're probusiness, but yet we're in a new area where we have to look at this.

There was some land purchased in another county.

I was told that they're going to put one of these facilities up and it's like, whoa, wait a minute here.

You know, there are a lot of serious questions that people, even though it may not happen in your county with the amount of energy use it does with some of the actors involved in this, the fact that we're in a cryptocurrency situation.

But we also have segmented because we now we have a tax credit bill on data centers that it was able to catch and ask did it have anything to do crypto?

And I was told not, but you have, you know, HP or Axiom or Walmart that's looking at data center.

What's the difference between a data center and a crypto mining facility?

So we had some of that testimony and we're just going to have to get down and know about this before we let something out and it's really bad and be concerning about our electrical grid and the health and citizens.

You know the Vilonia is an example of this where people are really getting fired up the the, the the city's Planning Commission halted this there.

I mean what do you know about that?

Well, I think Vilonia is also in the Faulkner County and so it did just a short drive over to see the facility north of Worcester, east of Greenbrier and a little community known as Bono.

So they drove over and listened to the noise and they said hey, we don't want this in the city of Vilonia.

And I I think the other counties, Faulkner County has followed quite a quite a bit and it didn't.

When they saw the impact on Faulkner County, I think folks around the state said, you know what, I know there's some of these operating out in the middle of soybean fields that don't bother anyone.

But when you have a situation like you got in Faulkner County where it's really just an unacceptable level of noise.

And let me say again, we're probusiness in Faulkner County, but there are good ways to do business and then ways that you should not do business.

And we don't want to negatively impact quality of life that we have in Arkansas.

And you know, for Faulkner County for sure, something to watch for sure.

We do appreciate you both, Senator Brian King.

Thank you, Judge Alan Dodson.

I'm sure we'll be discussing this again very soon.

Thank you both for being here and we'll be back after this.

Before we close, we want to take this time to recognize State Treasurer Mark Lowry, who died on Wednesday, one day after announcing he would retire in September because of health issues.

He was 66.

Lowry suffered 2 strokes earlier this year, and his health had rapidly deteriorated.

Governor Sanders will appoint someone to serve the rest of Lowry's term.

During his life, he worked in journalism as a newspaper editor.

He taught communications at the University of Central Arkansas and Henderson State University.

In the mid 1990s, Lowry became chief of staff for then Lieutenant Governor Mike Huckabee.

He also served in the State House of Representatives for a decade beginning in 2013.

In his years as a legislator, Lowry also joined us here several times on Arkansas Week.

I'm Dawn Scott.

Thanks for watching support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, The Arkansas Times, and KUARFM 89.