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Your browser does not support the audio element. Attorneys for the state urged a federal judge to reject the Little Rock School District's request to intervene in a lawsuit challenging Arkansas' Educational Freedom Account program. In a filing submitted Friday in the Eastern District of Arkansas, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin's office accused the school district of falling "short on every requirement to intervene as a party in this case." Griffin's office claims, among other things, the district lacks standing to intervene and that, even if it had standing, sovereign immunity would block its claims regardless. The school district motioned to intervene in an Oct. 24 filing that said the case's outcome "will significantly impact" its students and educators. However, the attorney general's office criticized the motion as a "misguided attempt that not only wastes taxpayer dollars but also would needlessly complicate this case with additional claims that are frivolous and barred by sovereign immunity." Griffin's office represents the case's defendants, who are Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Arkansas Department of Education, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, Education Secretary Jacob Oliva, Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Jim Hudson, and each of the state Board of Education's nine members. The plaintiffs in the case are Gwen Faulkenberry, Special Renee Sanders, Anika Whitfield and Kimberly Crutchfield. Faulkenberry, who lives in the Ozark School District, has been a columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette since 2021. The accounts program, now in its third year, expands public funding of student tuition and other costs related to private schools and homeschool expenses. The 2025-26 school year is the first in which the program is available to every Arkansas student. The funding amounts approved for the current school year are $6,864 per student and $7,627 for each former recipient of the Succeed Scholarship, according to the Education Department. At least 46,727 students have been approved to participate in the program this year. To successfully intervene, the district must show an "injury in fact, which is an injury to a legally protected interest that is 'concrete, particularized, and either actual or imminent,'" the attorney general's office said. It must also show the injury is "fairly traceable to the defendant's conduct and that a favorable decision" is likely to correct the injury, according to its filing. The district cannot show it has such an injury to support its constitutional claims, the attorney general's office claimed. Citing a 2009 decision in Ysursa v. Pocatello Education Association, the filing also asserts district officials "'have no standing to invoke' constitutional provisions 'in opposition to the will of their creator,'" which is the state. In its arguments against the district's motion to intervene on the grounds of sovereign immunity, Griffin's office cites the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, which held that federal courts are barred under the 11th Amendment from mandating that state officials obey state law. The attorney general's office also said the intervention, if granted, "would splinter the case, multiply the complexity of issues, inject confusion, and delay resolution to the detriment of the existing parties." The plaintiffs filed the initial lawsuit on June 13 on the grounds it violates the United States Constitution by allowing public funds to be used for the support of private religious schools and discriminates against disabled children. They were already engaged in a separate legal challenge in Pulaski County Circuit Court that claims the program violates the Arkansas Constitution. On Nov. 20, the state Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments regarding three parents' request to intervene in the circuit court case. Those three parents have also filed a motion to intervene in the federal case, though U.S. District Judge D.P. Marshall Jr. has not yet issued a ruling on that request. With support from the ADG Community Journalism Project, LEARNS reporter Josh Snyder covers the impact of the law on the K-12 education system across the state, and its effect on teachers, students, parents and communities. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette maintains full editorial control over this article and all other coverage.
