By: Phillip Kent
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark (UATV) — The Arkansas Senate voted 23-8 on SB184, this bill will transfer authorities and powers of the Arkansas State Library Board and the Arkansas Educational Television Commission (AETC) to the Arkansas Department of Education.
The bill also abolishes the AETC and the state library boards that oversee public libraries and educational public television programs.
Sponsored by Sen. (R) Dan Sullivan of Jonesboro, claiming the two boards “are very ineffective.” Sullivan further states that the State Department of Education would be more aligned with the goals and missions the state governmental branches.
“These boards and commissions meet once a quarter. They have a set agenda, they meet for about an hour, hour-and-a-half or so, and rarely do they come up with things that are consequential,” Sullivan said. “Under your oversight, there’s been a tremendous impact. And we have rectified that, and things have changed significantly. But it’s my contention that we will operate better and more aligned with the goals of the state — executive branch and legislative branch — if this is under the Department [of education],” he added.
Sen. (D) Claire Tucker of Little Rock argues, “The justification we have been given [for this bill] is just efficiency or alignment, and that’s just not a good enough reason.”
Misty Hawkins, Director of Arkansas River Valley Regional Library System, says the SB 184 clashes with Governor Sanders’ initiative to increased government efficiency.
“At this point, it remains unclear what specific problems this legislations seeks to fix or whether actual professionals in the [library] field were even consulted in the process,” Hawkins said.
Sen. Sullivan openly criticizes the public libraries and Arkansas PBS. He unsuccessfully tried to reduce their spending authority in the 2024 fiscal session.
Courtney Pledger, Arkansas PBS CEO said the agency will lose grant funds if it no longer had and independent board. This loss of funds will limit the capacity of educational programming and local sports broadcasts.
“The bill threatens these essential services by transferring us to a department that, by nature, must have and does have other priorities,” Pledger said. “… Arkansas PBS is serving our Arkansas community increasingly well, and I ask why we would disrupt a respected institution that is an example of efficient and cost-effective governance.”
Sullivan responded, “To say, ‘I’m afraid that my funding will be affected’… is strictly a scare tactic.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arkansas opposes the bill with arguments including, potential government overreach, threats to intellectual freedom, and uncertainty about the future of these institutions.
The bill was passed in the Arkansas Senate by a 23-8 vote, with the lone Democrat in the Senate voting against the bill. However, the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs has yet to open up the bill for discussion.
Committee chairman Rep. Jimmy Gazaway said bills are considered deferred in a committee if they are not heard for three meetings in a row and requires sponsors to give two days’ notice to remove a bill from the deferred list.