by Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate
April 30, 2025

Gender-nonconforming Arkansans might not meet the state’s requirements to obtain a REAL ID in order to board flights or enter certain federal buildings, which is a week away from being required by federal law.

Applicants for REAL IDs need to provide the Department of Finance and Administration with four different forms of identification:

A current driver’s license, state-issued ID, or school or work ID as proof of identityA passport or birth certificate as proof of legal presence in the United StatesA government-issued social security cardTwo documents providing proof of address, such as utility bills or bank statements, issued within the last six months

The documents “all have to sync up,” Finance Secretary Jim Hudson said last week.

Transgender and nonbinary Arkansans might have changed their names or gender information on some but not all legal documents, and state policies have made it difficult for these groups of people to obtain documents that accurately reflect who they are, advocates say. Birth certificates can be legally altered, and until this year, the federal government allowed gender-neutral information on U.S. passports.

“The government has played politics with people’s lives and upended people’s ability to accurately and properly identify themselves,” said Holly Dickson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas. “This has created much chaos and turmoil for no good reason while making life harder and more unsafe for all of us.”

Last year, the ACLU of Arkansas led a lawsuit against the DFA’s decision to stop issuing gender-neutral driver’s licenses. The case was dropped after Arkansas officials permanently adopted the new policy, which prohibits the use of an “X” to indicate someone’s gender in place of “M” or “F.”

Arkansans urge state finance department not to reverse gender-neutral driver’s license policy

Several transgender and nonbinary Arkansans, including Maggs Gallup of Little Rock, urged the finance department to maintain the previous policy, which had been in place for 14 years. Gallup said in an interview Monday that they are putting off obtaining a REAL ID in case doing so requires the state to remove the X gender marker from their driver’s license.

Hudson told lawmakers that a driver’s license is “not a platform for speech” and “not a platform for personal identity.” Gallup disagreed, saying their gender-neutral ID is important to them and putting incorrect information on an ID is “a deeply incongruent thing to do.”

“In an ideal world, it would be great to have the state and officials recognize our gender,” Gallup said. “They don’t get to determine who we are, no matter what letters we put on our IDs.”

REAL IDs began with a law passed by Congress in 2005 as a response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Instituting REAL IDs statewide “will help fight terrorism and reduce identity fraud,” according to the finance department website.

The federal Transportation Security Administration accepts passports in place of REAL IDs as identification to board a flight. Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a well-known transgender advocate who lives in Little Rock, said last week on Facebook that she was initially denied access to a flight because she has an X on her driver’s license, but she was allowed to board after displaying her passport containing a male gender marker.

Griffin-Gracy is 78 years old and gender-nonconforming, and she was present at the 1969 Stonewall riot between LGBTQ+ people and police in New York City. In her Facebook video, she expressed disbelief that her passport was accepted even though she did not appear masculine. She also said “we the people” should “stand up and fight” President Donald Trump’s administration, which does not recognize gender-neutral IDs.

Gallup said they are also concerned about potential limits on travel, both domestic and international, with or without a REAL ID. Their teenage child is old enough to learn to drive but is putting off obtaining a learner’s permit because of potential bureaucratic obstacles due to their gender-nonconforming identity, Gallup said.

Bill regulating transgender Arkansans’ bathroom use heads to House despite public pushback

“This is just one part of a larger, really complicated network of new rules and legislation that are challenging to navigate” for transgender and nonbinary Arkansans, Gallup said.

State lawmakers and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders approved a law this month that will allow Arkansans to sue for damages if they encounter someone in a bathroom, changing room, shelter or correctional facility who does not align with the “designated sex” of the space.

The state has also enacted laws in the past few years that ban transgender girls from playing girls’ sports, require public school students to use bathrooms that match their gender assigned at birth, regulate pronoun use in schools and allow doctors who provide transgender minors’ health care to be sued for medical malpractice.

Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.

The post REAL ID requirements among policies difficult for transgender, nonbinary Arkansans to navigate appeared first on arkansasadvocate.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The article appears to adopt a Center-Left perspective primarily through its focus on issues affecting transgender and nonbinary individuals, particularly with regard to identity documentation requirements in Arkansas. It emphasizes the challenges faced by gender-nonconforming individuals in obtaining accurate identification and highlights criticisms from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) regarding the state’s policy changes. The language used is sympathetic toward these groups, portraying the state’s actions as creating unnecessary turmoil and being politically motivated. Although the article provides factual information about the REAL ID process and relevant legal actions, its framing leans toward advocacy for the rights of transgender individuals, positioning the state’s policies in a critical light. This reflects a broader pattern of liberal advocacy for gender inclusivity in government identification practices. However, the piece does offer direct quotes from state officials, which helps balance the presentation of opposing views. Thus, the overall tone remains more supportive of progressive policies on gender identification, hence the Center-Left categorization.

SUMMARY: Two suspects remain on the run after the Conway Park shooting, while two others are in custody. One of the arrested suspects, Ryan Goens, was free on bond for a previous gun charge at the time of the shooting. He had posted a $75,000 bond for an alleged February gun crime, including possession of a machine gun, and was scheduled for a hearing the same week as the shooting, but it was postponed. This case has raised concerns about the state’s bail system and balancing public safety with the presumption of innocence. Goens faces 11 counts of aggravated assault.

As the search continues for two additional suspects in the Conway park shooting, here’s the latest information from police.

Source

by Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate
April 29, 2025

Arkansas preschool programs met eight of 10 benchmarks in a national early childhood education group’s analysis of the state’s pre-K efforts.

Some of the standards Arkansas meets are class sizes of 20 children or fewer, at least one teacher per every 10 students, specialized pre-K training for teachers and “comprehensive, aligned, supportive, culturally sensitive” early learning and development standards, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIERR), housed at Rutgers University.

Arkansas falls short in its early childhood education degree requirements and annual staff professional development, the report noted. Arkansas does not require all early childhood educators to hold bachelor’s degrees, and the state requires a minimum of 15 hours of professional development per year while the report says at least 30 should be required.

Arkansas ranked 31st nationwide in state spending on early childhood education during the 2023-24 school year, and its spending per student decreased while its enrollment of 3- and 4-year-olds in pre-K remained steady, according to NIERR’s nationwide analysis of state preschool programs released Tuesday.

The state’s preschool program, Arkansas Better Chance (ABC), serves children ages 3 and 4 from families earning up to 200% of the federal poverty level. ABC enrolled 20,311 children during the last school year, accounting for 19% of 3-year-olds and 32% of 4-year-olds statewide, according to the NIERR report.

While ABC enrollment increased by 1,063 children compared to the previous school year, overall spending decreased by more than $43 million, and spending per student decreased by $2,564, with those figures adjusted for inflation, the report states.

Federal funds helped Arkansas childcare providers stay afloat, but staffing struggles continue

Arkansas spends $2,016 less per student and nearly $41 million less overall than what the report considers “adequate” for its early childhood education landscape. The report defines adequacy as enough money to “support minimum quality standards and provide K-12 pay parity for preschool teachers within their current operating structures.”

The starting annual salary for Arkansas’ K-12 teachers increased from $36,000 to $50,000 in 2023 due to the wide-ranging LEARNS Act. This pay disparity between educators who teach 5-year-olds as opposed to 4-year-olds makes it challenging to maintain a robust pre-K workforce, early childhood education administrators told the Advocate in November 2023.

Arkansas has not implemented any “statewide initiatives or minimum set pay” to bolster the early childhood education workforce, which not only affects the overall quality of the system but also forces some preschool educators to rely on public assistance to meet their needs, Nicole Carey, policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, said in an interview Monday.

State spending per child enrolled in pre-K was at its lowest in nearly two decades during the 2023-24 school year, according to the NIERR report. Spending spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic but has since dropped, and it saw little change and no upward trend during most of the 2010s. Meanwhile, Arkansas’ rates of child enrollment in pre-K have returned to their pre-pandemic levels after decreasing in the early 2020s, according to the data.

“It would be great if we could have additional state investment in the ABC program, either toward educator wages or other types of workforce support,” Carey said.

Arkansas Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill this year that would have created a tax credit for early childhood educators, and a Republican-sponsored bill would have created a similar policy for “a licensed childcare provider.” Neither bill advanced.

Eleven states met nine or 10 of the NIERR standards, and none of those 11 states were “low spenders” because “money does matter for quality,” Steve Barnett, NIERR’s senior director and a co-author of the report, said in a virtual press briefing Friday.

Overall, Arkansas ranked 8th nationwide in 3-year-olds enrolled in pre-K, while 15 states do not have pre-K programs for 3-year-olds at all, according to the report. Arkansas ranked 24th in enrollment of 4-year-olds.

Additionally, 5% of 4-year-olds and 7% of 3-year-olds in Arkansas were enrolled in the federally-funded Head Start program in 2023-24, while 15% of 4-year-olds and 4% of 3-year-olds were enrolled in special education, the report states.

Arkansas has 28 Head Start locations statewide. Federal employees who administer Head Start have faced recent layoffs, but changes on the federal level have not impacted the program in Arkansas, said Leslie Taylor, spokesperson for Head Start’s Arkansas grantee, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

The state Department of Education oversees the Office of Early Childhood, which was under the jurisdiction of the Department of Human Services before the LEARNS Act went into effect in 2023. The law also required “local lead” organizations throughout the state to assess local and regional access to pre-K and what gaps or barriers should be addressed.

Most of the local lead organizations are education cooperatives, along with some school districts and child care organizations, according to the Department of Education.

AACF is “hopeful” that local leads will create “positive growth” in their areas, Carey said.

“For the local leads that I’ve spoken with, they have put in a lot of work and are doing a good job trying to connect with their communities,” she said.

Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.

The post Report: Arkansas pre-K landscape meets most quality standards, still has room for improvement appeared first on arkansasadvocate.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article presents a detailed analysis of Arkansas’ early childhood education programs, focusing on the state’s funding, standards, and legislative efforts. It highlights shortcomings in funding and support for pre-K educators and advocates for increased investment and professional development. The inclusion of perspectives from education advocates and Democratic lawmakers, and emphasis on the need for state intervention and funding parity, align with center-left priorities on education equity and public investment. The article is factual and balanced but leans toward supporting stronger government involvement in education funding and workforce support.