The For AR Kids ballot questions committee has now reached the needed signature threshold in 49 of the 50 counties they need by July 5 to qualify for the ballot in November.
If it makes the ballot and voters approve, the ambitious Educational Rights Amendment would amend the state’s constitution. It would mandate additional educational services — such as pre-K and stronger services for students with disabilities — and hold private schools that accept public funding through vouchers to the same standards as public schools.
To make it onto the 2024 ballot, supporters must collect at least 90,704 signatures from at least 50 counties. (Arkansas has 75 counties total.) Signatures are due by 5 p.m. Friday.
Bill Kopsky, the group’s treasurer, estimates that the group has 15,000 to 20,000 signatures to collect in the next couple days to make it to 90,704. That’s achievable, Kopsky said. But it’s certainly a steep climb; if the group makes it, it will go down to the wire
As for picking up one more county, Kopsky said the group is targeting four counties that are close to the threshold. He expressed confidence that at least one of those counties will get over the hump well before the final deadline. It’s also possible that another county will get an unexpected surge; the group is relying entirely on volunteers and the process is a bit harder to track than it is for better funded efforts with firmer organization.
More than 1,000 volunteers are working at more than 50 events across the state this week collecting signatures.
For AR Kids is working on a shoestring budget — the group has raised just $8,217.53 — whereas big-money donations from Jim Walton, rightwing TikTok investor Jeff Yass, and others have poured more than $1 million into efforts to fight the measure before it even reaches the ballot.
“We are grassroots,” organizer Kymara Seals said at a press conference on Tuesday. “This is what we do. We don’t have millionaire donors, we don’t have billionaire donors. We have people power.”