LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The petition brought upon by CAPES (Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students) aimed against the Arkansas LEARNS Act was less than 1,000 signatures short of the required amount, according to the Arkansas Secretary of State.
The Secretary of State shared in a letter that after reviewing the petition, the overall amount of signatures that CAPES collected was 53,444, which was short of the 54,422 that's required for 2023.
The letter from the Secretary of State listed three key reasons behind why the petition from CAPES was deemed "legally deficient."
The first of the reasons was that the petition was determined to have been 973 signatures short of the required amount.
The second of the three reasons states that the sponsor is required to submit an affidavit where they indicate the number of petitions and total number of signatures that are being filed. The letter states that "at the time [CAPES] submitted the petition, [CAPES] failed to submit an official affidavit meeting the requirement."
The final of the three reasons that the letter points to is that CAPES submitted a document that listed that 53,675 signatures were collected, which would only meet the county distribution requirement in 48 out of 50 counties.
The letter then states that "[CAPES's] own submission" represented a failure to meet "both the total signature and county distribution requirements."
The deadline for the petition was Monday, July 31, with the group submitting the signatures that same day.
CAPES had been working for months to collect enough signatures to get the education reform plan to a statewide vote.
The LEARNS Act went into effect August 1, and this push from CAPES was an attempt to give voters a choice in November 2024 whether to keep or repeal the law.
In a statement, CAPES described the Secretary of State's declaration to be "disappointing."
"We are going to continue to fight to ensure the democratic rights of our citizens are recognized and protected. We are going to continue to fight for our public education system in Arkansas," the group said in their statement.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders posted online following the release of the Secretary of State's letter, calling this a "win" for students.
"Today it’s official: they failed, Arkansas’ students won, and my administration will continue to raise teacher pay, invest in literacy, and empower parents and students through LEARNS," Sanders said.