During a Senate Education Committee session this week, students from Little Rock Central High School took to the state Capitol to weigh in on the Arkansas LEARNS bill. The question of how to combat persistent brain drain, for which I am a most repentant poster child, is one that has plagued state leaders and regional economic developers for decades. Sen. English’s behavior demonstrates a particularly egregious decline in our state leaders’ ability to do their jobs. The story of the LEARNS bill is not one of transformative education reform. Our political leaders can’t seem to make the connection between honest-to-goodness educational investment—for every child—and future workforce payoffs for communities statewide.

Source: The Guardian March 12, 2023 06:27 UTC