Discussion with bill sponsor ‘saved’ Arkansas PBS governing board from dissolution, chairman says

by Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate
March 7, 2025

A proposal to eliminate the governing board that oversees educational public television programs in Arkansas is not likely to advance further in the Legislature, the board chairman said Thursday.

The Arkansas Educational Television Commission oversees Arkansas PBS programs and finances and acts independently of the Arkansas Department of Education despite operating under its umbrella. Senate Bill 184, which passed the Senate in February, would abolish the commission and transfer its powers and authorities to the education department.

At the commission’s quarterly meeting Thursday, Chairman West Doss said he came to “an understanding” with SB 184’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Jonesboro, earlier that morning.

“I’m passionate about education, I’m passionate about what this commission has done, and I will fight for it every minute of the day, so that’s what we were doing,” Doss said. “Maybe we didn’t have all the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed, but we have saved the commission now. We’ve saved the work that we are doing.”

Sullivan has been a vocal critic of Arkansas PBS, particularly since its regularly scheduled 2022 audit indicated that administrators might have sidestepped state laws related to contract bidding, and a specially requested audit that concluded last year led auditors to forward the findings to a prosecuting attorney.

Arkansas PBS CEO Courtney Pledger told lawmakers in September that the agency had learned from its “mistakes and errors,” but Sullivan told the Senate the commission should have taken action in response to the audit findings.

Twenty-three Republican senators voted to approve SB 184 on Feb. 17, but the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs has yet to take up the bill for discussion.

Committee chairman Rep. Jimmy Gazaway, R-Paragould, told the Advocate Wednesday that Sullivan anticipated an amendment to the bill and had requested it not to be heard yet. Bills are considered deferred in a committee if they are not heard for three meetings in a row, and sponsors must give two days’ notice to remove a bill from the deferred list.

Discussion

Arkansas PBS could lose both federal and private funding, limiting its ability to provide public programming, if its governance is no longer independent of the state’s executive branch, Pledger and other opponents of SB 184 have said.

The dissolution of the commission would also cause “far-reaching legal and practical problems” for Arkansas PBS and the state itself, according to a Feb. 27 letter to the agency from a Washington, D.C. law firm that specializes in telecommunications law. The Advocate received the letter via the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

“If the Arkansas Secretary of Education (or any other elected official or individual appointed to serve at the pleasure of an elected official) has the power directly to control the broadcast stations, there would be little question that the Secretary was directly involved in the state’s political and administrative process,” wrote Margaret Miller of Gray Miller Persh. “He would in fact be a political officer of the state.”

Miller also said the Federal Communications Commission might require every new Arkansas education secretary in the future to go through “the whole expensive and time-consuming transfer process” of obtaining Arkansas PBS’ FCC license.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette first reported on the letter Feb. 28.

In response to questions Thursday from commissioner Gary Newton, Doss said he directed Pledger to seek the expert legal opinion on short notice because the commission and the agency were “facing extinction.”

“If we put [Arkansas PBS] under a political entity, such as the head of the Department of Education, appointed by the governor… they are political animals, and Arkansas PBS becomes a propaganda arm for whoever is in power, whether it’s the Republicans or it’s the Democrats or it’s the Green Party or whoever, and that’s the reason we’re an independent commission,” Doss said.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed Sullivan’s wife, Maria Sullivan, and Newton to the Arkansas Educational Television Commission last year.

Newton said he disapproved of Doss apparently speaking for the whole commission in his discussion with Sullivan about SB 184. He also said he was “disappointed” to learn about the letter from a news outlet instead of from Arkansas PBS leadership.

“For that subject to not be on the agenda, it feels like it’s being kept from the very commissioners whose role on this commission is at stake with the passage of SB 184,” Newton said.

Doss continued to defend his and Pledger’s request for the opinion and said his discussion with Sullivan “avoided a potential tragedy.”

“As far as I’m concerned, and [as far as] I think Sen. Sullivan’s concerned, it’s over right now,” said Doss, who could not be reached for further comment Thursday after the meeting.

Sullivan refused to answer questions from the Advocate about his conversation with Doss. He said the Advocate “rarely prints anything as accurately” as he would prefer.

SB 184 would also abolish the Arkansas State Library Board, which oversees public libraries and disburses state funds to them on a quarterly basis. Sullivan has been critical of the State Library Board and its relationship with the American Library Association, a nonprofit trade organization that advocates for public libraries and helps them secure grant funding.

The commission later adopted a motion by Newton directing Pledger and her staff to work with the education department to make PBS’ “rich library” of professional development videos available to homeschoolers and private school teachers as well as public and charter school educators.

Commissioners also adopted several motions from Newton directing PBS executives and staff to work with the education department to explore the potential development of broadcast quality videos highlighting high-wage Arkansas industries and job availabilities and videos based on the “science of reading” to help young learners and those struggling with literacy.

Another Newton motion directed PBS staff to develop an evaluation tool for assessing whether the network’s programming meets AETN’s mission as described in law, whether it or something comparable is available on the commercial market, “how educational is it,” and “how Arkansas is it.” Commissioners also approved it.

“The overall goal [of the flurry of motions] is to try to demonstrate relevance … and that we as a commission are doing our jobs,” Newton said.

Arkansas Advocate Editor Sonny Albarado contributed to this story.

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.

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