Arkansas Got It Right: Why Every State Should Follow the LEARNS Act

Reading comprehension is the foundation of all learning, yet too many American schools have fallen behind—prioritizing divisive ideology and limiting parents' control over their children's education. If America is going to stay competitive on the world stage, the foundations of education must be significantly revitalized.

When Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the LEARNS (Literacy, Empowerment, Accountability, Readiness, Networking and Safety) Act into law in 2023, Arkansas reorganized its schools primarily around two principles: parents should choose where and how their children learn, and every child must learn the key foundations for furthering education. These two ideas are the heart of the law—expanded school choice gives families real power over their children's education, and a renewed focus on early literacy ensures the schools they choose actually teach the foundational skill on which everything else depends. Together, they offer a clear and practical model for fixing the American education system.

The first pillar is school choice. Through the new Educational Freedom Accounts, the LEARNS Act gives families up to 90% of per-student funding to choose the school that fits their child’s needs, with eligibility expanding until every Arkansas student qualifies by 2025-26. The law also removes the old caps on the number of charter schools and on transfers between districts, so families are no longer locked into a single assigned school. The principle is simple and deeply American: families' hard-earned money would support their children by giving them the freedom to choose the best school for their unique circumstances.

The second pillar is teaching children to read early and well. The LEARNS Act follows the actual science behind early childhood development: explicit, phonics-based instruction grounded in evidence rather than the ideologically infused methods that failed a generation of students. It requires reading screening for every child from kindergarten through third grade, places reading coaches in struggling schools, and refuses to push a child past third grade who can't yet read at grade level, pairing that standard with intensive help to meet it. This matters because reading is the foundation of all learning: through third grade, a child is learning to read, and ever after, they are reading to learn. Get those early years right, and every subject opens up; get them wrong and a child falls behind.

Arkansas has shown that empowering parents and teaching children to read are not competing goals but a single, proven strategy. Other states should not wait. Legislators and governors across the country should follow Arkansas's lead—put parents in charge, ground reading instruction in real science, and give every child the foundation to succeed.