A lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Arkansas seeks to halt the state’s Educational Freedom Account program, on the grounds that 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.

The lawsuit assigned to U.S. District Judge D.P. Marshall Jr. was filed June 13 by four plaintiffs currently engaged in a separate legal challenge that claims the program violates the Arkansas Constitution.

The plaintiffs are Gwen Faulkenberry, Special Renee Sanders, Anika Whitfield and Kimberly Crutchfield, who are represented by Richard H. Mays and Hannah Allison Gore Gipson of the Little Rock-based Richard Mays Law Firm. Faulkenberry, who lives in the Ozark School District, has been a columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette since 2021.

The defendants include Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Arkansas Department of Education, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, Education Secretary Jacob Oliva, secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration Jim Hudson and each of the nine-member state Board of Education, who are represented by state Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office.

In their complaint, the plaintiffs claim the Educational Freedom Account program — referred to throughout the document as “the Voucher Program” — violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from favoring one religion over others. Their filing also claims the program violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which mandates that people in similar circumstances receive the same treatment under the law. Finally, the complaint asserts the program violates Article 2, Section 24 of the Arkansas Constitution, which prohibits people from being compelled to attend any place of worship against their consent and bars the state from giving preference by law to religious establishments, denominations or modes of worship “above any other.”

“The LEARNS Act is, through the use of public funds of the State of Arkansas, creating a separate and unequal dual school system of public and private schools, the latter of which, as a regular part of their curricula, teach the doctrines of particular religious, creeds and sects as a means of the establishment, encouragement, development and perpetuation of such religions, creeds and sects,” the complaint states. The plaintiffs claim that system also “denies the equal protection of the laws available and applicable to Arkansas school children based on economic, racial and physical characteristics and abilities,” and creates a “system of private schools that are not available to all school children in Arkansas because such private schools are not located in and accessible to school children in many rural areas of the State of Arkansas.”

Asked for comment on the lawsuit, Sam Dubke, spokesman for the governor’s office, said in an email: “This suit has no merit. More than 44,000 students have applied for EFAs for next school year and far-left activists are playing politics with those kids’ futures to try and protect a failed status quo.”

In an earlier statement, Griffin praised the education overhaul, adding that he “successfully defended the LEARNS Act and will eagerly do it again.”

It always seemed like the path to the championship series of the College World Series was going to pass through “The Boot.”

“The Boot” is the trophy annually presented to the winner of the football game between the University of Arkansas and LSU — an idea, now a tradition, founded by David Bazzel.

The Razorbacks and the Tigers were the top two seeded teams to make it to the College World Series. Of course, the bracket had them playing in the first game, won by LSU 4-1 on Saturday.

With strong pitching and 10-hit games the Razorbacks got by Murray State and UCLA set up a Wednesday rematch with LSU.

After Saturday’s win the Tigers had an all-time record of 80-45 against the Razorbacks, However, the team that has an overall CWS record of 47-29 and seven championship trophies has not owned Arkansas the last six seasons.

They didn’t play in 2020 when the world of sports was canceled due to covid-19, but Arkansas is 12-6 in regular-season play against LSU and 1-1 in NCAA Tournament games since 2019.

Even in the years when LSU’s football team was having an off season — not that often really — the Tiger fans always had baseball. Not so much basketball though.

Arkansas is similar to LSU in that way, and it’s why the “Omahogs” have such a great following. Success breeds loyalty.

The Razorback football team needs a competitive season this fall. Basketball will be fine, maybe even better than that.

So, on the subject of football, while the LSU baseball team is trying to bring some athletic glory home, back home legislation is pending that would raise the sports betting tax from from 15% to 21.5%.

That would produce an additional $24.3 million for the state’s 11 public universities that compete on the Division I level.

All the money, every cent, would go to the football programs to help fund benefits of student athletes. It won’t directly go to name, image and likeness, which remains separate for athletes despite going on the payroll next month.

With the House v. NCAA settlement’s approval, schools next year will be allowed to directly pay athletes up to $20.5 million.

Earlier this year, Arkansas was the first state to do away with state income tax on NIL money. Others quickly followed suit.

I couldn’t find any direct breakdown of the $24.3 million for football, but the guess here it will not be divided equally.

In Louisiana, LSU is the tail that wags the dog. The straw that stirs the drink. What turns fans into fanatics.

There is a reason no team wants to play football on a Saturday night in Baton Rouge as tens of thousands of fans tailgate and hydrate all day.

It is a semi-controlled frenzy by kickoff in the evening and something every college football fan should experience at least once.

It is interesting to say the least. Walk by one tailgate and they’ll offer you gumbo, stop at the next and they’ll offer you a tail whipping — do not accept, walk on by.

Superstition says if Mike the Tiger is outside his caged cave, you might as well go home, your team has no chance.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to sign off on the tax cut because it is a wildly popular idea in the state.

So back home the talk is football, but in Omaha we have the baseball Tigers, second in CWS championships behind only Southern Cal’s 12. Its last was in 1998. Since then LSU has won three championships.

This was a spectacular baseball season for most of the SEC, which has added basketball to its national athletic resume, and two of the best were going at it Wednesday with everything on the line.

OMAHA, NE ― Maybe it was too early to panic about the SEC.

Long the nation’s premier baseball conference, the SEC got a record 13 bids to the NCAA tournament. But just four of those 13 teams advanced to super regionals and two to Omaha, leading to conversations about whether the league was overrated.

But those two teams − Arkansas and LSU − are two of the last four teams remaining in the 2025 Men’s College World Series after the Razorbacks’ win over UCLA to advance to the semifinals. One of the two teams is guaranteed to advance to the national championship series, with Arkansas needing to beat LSU twice to do so.

Whether LSU or Arkansas advances, it will make 16 times in the last 17 seasons that the SEC has had a team in the national championship series, with the 2016 matchup between Coastal Carolina and Arizona being the only season without one. Five of those series have seen two SEC teams facing each other, plus two more that featured now-SEC members Oklahoma and Texas when they were in the Big 12.

This time, the matchup of SEC heavyweights will take place in the semifinals rather than the finals; the winner will take on Louisville or Coastal Carolina.

Each of the last five completed seasons has seen a different national champion from the SEC: Vanderbilt in 2019, Mississippi State in 2021, Ole Miss in 2022, LSU in 2023 and Tennessee in 2024. Arkansas, which is seeking its first national title in baseball, could make it a sixth.

But it’ll have to go through the Tigers to get there. LSU won both the series between the two teams earlier this season and the opening game between the two of them on June 14.

“We played them four times,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. “We lost in extra innings. They whipped us. We beat them. And then what happened the other night. I remember them all. The first game finished about 1:15 in the morning. And then we got beat later that day. Then we won on a Sunday … They’re really good. They don’t have any weaknesses. They’ve got big-time arms. Their top six, seven arms, all are big time at this level. They’ve got power, got some speed. You just have to pitch well against them and you’ve got to score. If we don’t score, we’ll be in trouble.”

The Razorbacks have their pitching set up relatively well. Top two starters Gage Wood and Zach Root are unlikely to be available, as are top relievers Gabe Gaeckle and Aiden Jimenez. But Arkansas has several other options, including Landon Beidelschies, Cole Gibler, Ben Bybee, Dylan Carter, Tate McGuire, Colin Fisher and Parker Coil. If the Razorbacks can win the first semifinal to advance to Thursday, Gaeckle might be able to return after throwing six innings and 90 pitches in relief in the first game. But LSU would likely counter with ace Kade Anderson, who shut down Arkansas for seven innings of one-run ball the same day.

If one of Arkansas or LSU can clinch the national championship, all the hemming and hawing about the league from earlier in the postseason will prove moot. And even if one of them can’t, the SEC has proven that even in a down season, you can pencil the league into Omaha until the very end.

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.