Arkansas General Assembly

We begin today with education.

On February 22nd, 2023, the Arkansas Legislature's Senate Education Committee gathered to first discuss SB 294, a 145-page bill filed just two days earlier that would eventually be passed into law as the Arkansas LEARNS Act.

During that committee meeting, then State Senator Greg Leding, a Democrat from Fayetteville, asked the bill's sponsor, Senator Brianne Davis, a Republican from Russellville, about accountability for private schools.

Under this legislation, if it were law, could I walk across the street, hand in my letter of resignation, drive back to Fayetteville, and open the Jim Dotson Institute for Liberal Ideology with, with no background in education? [laughing]

I could tell it wasn't my lifelong career, but in that moment, I was really enjoying that.

But also, I met a, one of the dads in my school was a local politician, a state representative in the Arkansas General Assembly, and he- And I'd gotten, gotten, gotten to know him, and he decided he was gonna run for Congress, and he asked me to help.

And so I volunteered for his campaign, and we won, and, you know, the rest is history.

I mean, like, I ended up going to work for him and, uh, spent 10 years working on his staff in the Congress and in the Senate.

[Instrumental music] Governor Faubus won't budge.

He calls an emergency session of the Arkansas General Assembly to consider 16 bills to forestall desegregation.

[Instrumental music] The Supreme Court meets and orders immediate integration of Central High.

Arkansas passes the segregation bills and closes the Little Rock High School system.