Arkansas

Governor wants Arkansas’ next legislative session to focus on higher ed, she says | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Published

2 years ago

August 13, 2024

Governor wants Arkansas’ next legislative session to focus on higher ed, she says | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

ROGERS — Gov. Sarah Sanders wants to focus on higher education in the next legislative session, she said at a public appearance in Rogers on Tuesday.

Improvements in higher education are needed to provide the skilled workforce vital to business expansion and the state’s economic growth, Sanders said at a luncheon hosted by the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. About 500 people attended. The Legislature convenes in January.

Public education received the highest priority in the 2023 legislative session, the first of the Sanders administration. The governor proposed a public education overhaul with the LEARNS act, which passed. Now she wants to turn to higher education, she said.

“I hope that our focus shifts to that,” she said.

The governor gave no specifics of the changes in higher education she would like to see, or what else might be a priority for her administration in the next session. State budgets for higher education stayed flat in recent years with a slight decrease in the state’s budget for the fiscal year that started July 1.

“Higher education should be a priority,” said Sen. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville. Leding is a member of the Senate Education Committee and the Higher Education Task Force of the National Conference of State Legislators. His district includes the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville campus.

“With the university in my district, I tend to think of 18-year-olds coming out of high school and going to college, but it’s not like that anymore,” Leding said.

The portion of adults returning to school to improve their skills is a growing segment of students; changes to higher education should reflect that, he said.

Leding is glad to hear of the governor’s comments, he said, but bringing higher education to the front of legislative priorities has dangers. Higher education is the favorite target of some lawmakers who believe colleges and universities are not socially conservative enough, he said.

Joe Spivey of Rogers, a member of the Board of Trustees at Northwest Arkansas Community College, said he hopes the state’s two-year colleges and technical schools benefit from the governor’s efforts. High-tech industry needs the engineers and others educated in four-year universities, but need workers from two-year schools as well, he said.

“We have to be aware that what will attract industry are two-year colleges and the tech programs in them,” Spivey said.

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Arkansas

Arkansas Governor joins national A.I. workforce initiative

Published

6 hours ago

June 25, 2026

Press Room

Arkansas Governor joins national A.I. workforce initiative

LITTLE ROCK, AR (KATV) — Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has joined a new national artificial intelligence initiative that launched Thursday, June 25.

RAISE US, started by former Governor Eric Holcomb of Indiana and Gina Raimondo, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce is a nonpartisan national organization that will partner with governors, employers, workers and training organizations to help the workforce transition to an AI economy.

“As artificial intelligence transforms America’s economy, we have one clear message: technology should empower people, not replace them. By leveraging our Arkansas LAUNCH initiative, and with the resources and expertise provided by RAISE US, Arkansas will turn that mission into reality. We want the Natural State to be a leader on education, workforce training, and up-skilling, and this new partnership gives us the tools we need to build a model for the entire nation.”

The organization will design and pilot incentives to retrain workers, new approaches to support job transitions, and training models tied to employer demand.

RAISE US launches with more than two dozen American companies and philanthropies and initial state partnerships in Connecticut, Maryland and Utah.

“America has a technology strategy for leading the global AI competition. It does not yet have a people strategy — and we cannot lead without one,” Raimondo, who will serve as CEO of RAISE US, said.

“If we build the best AI systems in the world and leave millions of Americans behind, we won’t have won anything; we’ll have automated our own decline. I believe AI will create new jobs and industries over time, but the transition could be disruptive, and it’s already underway. We shouldn’t fearmonger, but we can’t pretend our training and worker support systems are ready either. It’s time for innovative and practical solutions. This moment demands ambition, urgency, and creativity. We’ve assembled the country’s top companies, best economists, and bipartisan governors at a scale rarely seen — all to advance new ideas and incentives, pilot them with governors and business, and scale what works.”

Governor Sanders is partnering with RAISE US to support Arkansas LAUNCH, an AI-powered career navigation platform that connects students and jobseekers to personalized learning and employer-linked career pathways.

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