AR Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders touts school choice success, announces higher-ed reforms

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders commemorated her achievement in K-12 education reform in her 2025 State of the State address Tuesday, also announcing her plans for higher education.

“By working together, we have achieved tremendous progress on K-12 schools, but education is a lifelong journey, and in this administration, education reform will be too,” Sanders began.

She cited success stories from the state’s Education Freedom Account (EFA) program, which will be universal next year and has already received over 20,000 applications for the 2025-26 school year.

“One student I’ve heard from is Elijah, who recently enrolled in St. Theresa’s in Southwest Little Rock,” Sanders said. “Elijah’s parents had sent him to their local public school, but knew they wanted a faith-based, smaller environment that met Elijah’s needs. More than that, they wanted a community in which the whole family could be involved.”

Because Elijah’s father is a veteran, the family was able to enroll in the EFA program and choose a private school that suited their son. Sanders said Elijah is now “thriving,” and his parents are involved in the school’s weekend Bible study.

But her address wasn’t all about past accomplishments. The governor also announced her new initiative for higher education, called Arkansas ACCESS.

“Higher education can be the difference between a life of poverty and a life of success. And it should be available to everyone, no matter their background,” Sanders argued. 

“For far too long, students were told the lie that the only way to be successful in life is to get a four-year college degree right after high school. When this body passes Arkansas ACCESS, every student, young and old, will know the truth: every Arkansan is unique, and every education journey will be unique too.” 

Components of the plan include streamlining the state university application process, funding college credits taken in high school, and expanding scholarships for associate’s degrees and credential programs. 

The governor added that professors who are radical idealogues wouldn’t be tolerated in Arkansas.  

“Arkansas students go to our colleges and universities to learn, not to be bombarded with anti-American, historically illiterate, woke nonsense,” she declared. “We will make it so that any professor, tenured or not, that wastes time indoctrinating instead of educating can be terminated from their job.”  

Lastly, Sanders shared her plan to prohibit cell phones in schools after last year’s successful pilot program.  

“We started a phone-free schools pilot program, and three quarters of our school districts voluntarily signed up,” she recalled. “In just one district, a phone-free school saw a 57% drop in verbal and physical aggression and a 51% drop in drug-related offenses. 

“This session, we will ban cell phones in our schools, bell to bell, so that our kids are not distracted, in class or out of it. And we will break the cycle of the mental health crisis facing our kids.”