The Education Freedom Account (EFA) program is a school choice initiative created under the Arkansas LEARNS Act of 2023. It essentially acts as an education savings account that allows state education funds to "follow the student" if they choose an alternative to traditional public schooling.
This is the first full year Arkansas had universal education freedom.
J. Robertson of Opportunity Arkansas, which supports education freedom, says it is helping nearly 50,000 students choose the education option that works best for them and their families.
Still, critics are spreading misinformation, suggesting the EFA program is just a slush fund riddled with fraud and misspending.
"This is a common attack that happens to school choice efforts around the country," Robertson tells AFN. "We conducted a full audit and found that this is actually one of, if not the most, accountable programs in state government."
Over a million lines of data were reviewed by researchers at Opportunity Arkansas, and not one single dime of taxpayer funds was misspent.
"That is verified by two other independent audits of this program that have been conducted by the University of Arkansas since it's been in existence for the last three years," Robertson reports. "Further, the way that these programs are structured makes it very difficult for any sort of misspending to ever get through because they're all reviewed by the Department of Education and approved to ensure that they comply with the rules."
A "handful of transactions" were submitted that would not have qualified, but Robertson said those were all rejected.
Meanwhile, public schools misspent "tens of thousands of dollars" in the past year alone. For example, one of the state's public schools spent thousands of dollars on a staff party with a rotating dance floor and gifts like a slushie machine and a griddle.
"What we're seeing is that all these allegations that get thrown at the Education Freedom Account program and school choice programs are just convenient excuses for people that really don't like the idea of parents being in charge," Robertson concludes.
