Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivers her State of the State address inside the Arkansas House of Representatives on Jan. 14, 2025. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate)
As Arkansas legislators return this week to the State Capitol, we should all be on the lookout for a particular species likely to menace its marble halls to our possible detriment: Trojan horses, fortified by the whisperings of high-priced consultants.
The Trojan horses to which I’m referring are lengthy, complex bills touted to serve a purportedly beneficent purpose, stuffed with provisions that would have difficulty standing on their own or might draw too much attention if not adequately disguised.
Gov. Sarah Sanders perfected this strategy two years ago with her LEARNS bill, when she loaded up her private school vouchers program with so many shiny ornaments — and “anti-woke” measures legislators were afraid to vote against — that she got it through the legislature in a mere 17 days.
This year, Sanders is turning her attention to higher education, and she laid out her strategy in her State of the State address — come up with a benign brand acronym (Arkansas ACCESS) and combine provisions likely to have strong support (simplifying the admissions process at state colleges and universities and expanding scholarships) with a full-throated assault on academic freedom and tenure that raises profound practical and First Amendment issues.
“We will make it so any professor, tenured or not, that wastes time indoctrinating our students instead of educating them can be terminated from their job,” she said.
Defining indoctrination and trying to set up an enforcement mechanism that doesn’t lead directly to federal court are details that will no doubt be buried in the fine print. And although she didn’t mention it in her speech, a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs will almost certainly be on the table.
Sanders is also pushing a change in the funding formula for state universities and colleges based on the recommendations of, you guessed it, a consulting firm from Texas. While the devil here will also be in the details, the general direction is clear: Emphasis on programs and majors that serve the needs of employers, morphing higher education into more of a job training program and leaving less money for humanities and social sciences that foster critical thinking skills.
The governor is also turning her attention to “government efficiency,” the details of which are outlined in a 956-page report prepared with the help of McKinsey & Co., consultants paid $5.5 million to give advice on reorganizing an executive branch reorganized a mere six years ago by her predecessor, Asa Hutchinson.
This latest restructuring includes a smorgasbord of changes, including consolidating state information technology services, purchasing, vehicles and real estate and moving to a market-based “pay for performance” plan for state employees (who might pause to remember how LEARNS repealed job protections for teachers in the guise of improving their pay.)
Sanders claims this plan can save $300 million “in cost savings and avoidance” over the next six years. And who’s going to argue against a drive for government efficiency wrapped in a patina of expert advice? Certainly not state legislators who haven’t waded through 956 pages of obtuse, consultant-penned gobbledygook. Or who are asked to rush through a 150-page bill dropped on their desks from the clear blue sky.
Yet, just one of McKinsey’s recommendations illustrates why legislators need to be cautious about what could be lurking inside this Trojan horse: Centralizing all Freedom of Information Act document requests in a single executive branch office, rather than having custodians who actually keep the records respond as required under current law.
Setting aside the political mischief that might result from giving a single bureaucrat power over FOIA, this change also won’t save a dime. The FOIA coordinator will still have to reach out to the custodian to find and produce the records, which will take the same amount of time. Indeed, the only change this would make would be adding a new layer of bureaucracy to make the process less efficient for people using FOIA — which, of course, is probably the point.
We should also be on the lookout for another Trojan horse regarding the ballot initiative process, which descended into a debacle last summer after amendments legalizing abortion and expanding medical marijuana were kept off the ballot over paperwork errors, despite getting enough signatures.
That experience made it clear that the laws surrounding direct democracy need to be rewritten to make them easier to follow and less confusing. Yet, a rewrite would also give legislators an opportunity to push through new restrictions that would make citizen initiatives even more difficult, particularly given the likelihood that the abortion amendment will return in 2026.
In addition to these Trojan horses, here are a few other questions likely to spice up this session:
Does Sen. Gary Stubblefield have enough votes to slow or block funding for Sanders’ new prison in Franklin County? Stubblefield indicated earlier this month that 18 senators were prepared to defy Sanders and Senate Republican leader Bart Hester on her inexplicable decision to impose a prison at an unsuitable location in a community that doesn’t want it. This could be one of the most high-decibel fights of the session, with activists from the Franklin County and River Valley Coalition gearing up to make their voices heard.
Will legislators override Sanders’ stubborn refusal to extend postpartum care to mothers receiving Medicaid? Forty-nine other states — red and blue — have taken this step, but Sanders has continued to insist it isn’t necessary. House Democrats and Republican Rep. Aaron Pilkington are both pushing bills that would extend the coverage despite her objections.
Will legislators authorize college athletic programs to operate raffles on game days to raise NIL money? Republican Rep. R.J. Hawk from Bryant has filed a bill to make the raffles legal, but it prohibits the state’s three casinos from being involved. The University of Arkansas and other athletic programs are likely to put their considerable muscle behind this, but legislation touching on casinos sets off competitive crosscurrents at the Capitol likely to draw high-priced lobbyists from every direction.
Will legislators heed former Sen. Jason Rapert’s call to abolish the State Library Board? After Sanders appointed him to the board, he went ballistic when other members refused to go along with his quest to force local libraries to restrict access to books that he dislikes. Whether Rapert has enough influence to get legislators to nuke the board is debatable; another more troubling possibility is that the legislature could give the library board more authority to indulge Rapert’s censorship drive.
Will the legislature consider easing restrictions on cockfighting? An animal rights group raised the alarm back in November that two legislators had met with lobbyists from the game fowl industry about weakening the state’s animal cruelty laws. Cockfighting is illegal nationwide, and a felony in Arkansas, and even considering a change would bring down a ton of negative publicity. That should act as a brake — but if past Arkansas legislatures have shown us anything, it’s to never say never.