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.