House Education Committee Part 1
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- October 5, 2026
Representative James McLean
Unverified
0:00
For this committee, this is my second term on the Education Committee, and in my four years here, this is the most enjoyable committee experience that I've had. A lot of folks who are now on the committee this go-around were on it last term. I think you'll see a lot of educational professionals, people who care about education, people who have been involved either in school boards or professional educators populate this committee. In my estimation, I think this is the single most important committee here at the legislature.
And so I hope that you feel the same way, and I think we're going to have a really, really excellent group of folks taking care of educational policy, the most important thing that we do here at your state capitol. Just a little bit about myself. I'm from Batesville, Arkansas. I represent District 63, which is primarily Independence County, with Batesville right in the middle. As I said, this is my third term. I am a funeral director by trade, so that makes me the ultimate customer service person.
And that's how I kind of take my legislative responsibilities, customer service, taking care of your constituents, taking care of our stakeholders here, and making sure that we do just the best possible job that we possibly can. Before we kind of get into some of the nitty-gritty things that we need to talk about today, I just want everybody to take an opportunity to introduce themselves, and first I'd like my distinguished vice chair, who I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to work with this
session on this committee and a true resource for education in Arkansas, someone who I served with last term on this committee as well, and that's our vice chair, Representative Ann Clemmer. Thank
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
1:49
you. Thank you very much. I'm not going to say very much, which you know is not characteristic for me. I've got a head cold, and so I don't want to voice my voice on you. I do have a career in education at the higher ed level.
I started in the 80s. We'll just leave it at that as a community college program director and have been at UALR now for my 21st year at UALR teaching. So I went from nine years of administration or eight years of administration to teaching at the higher ed level. And obviously I think everyone in this room has a K-12 interest because we've been parents or we've had a niece or a nephew or someone that we've helped navigate high school.
And maybe if there's some young ones out there, maybe grade school. But we all have a very strong interest in K-12 and hopefully in higher ed as well. I'm just very, very honored to be sitting here next to Chairman McLean, and I hope that if you need me to help you with anything, assuming I can, I will be more than happy to. I am, again, I look out at this room and I see people with a very strong interest, passion, in fact,
for education, and I'm honored to be on this committee with you.
Representative James McLean
Unverified
3:20
Traditionally, what we do, these first organizational meetings, is take time for the committee members to kind of introduce themselves and let us know where you're from. And I'd like to start at the end of the table with our freshman members who, to be quite honest, getting on this committee is a big deal when you're a freshman. And I want to, Representative Talley, if you just want to start, and then we'll just kind of come up, and then we'll go back around, and we'll hit home a little last.
Representative Brent Talley
Unverified
3:47
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm Brent Talley, and I represent District 3. That's Hempstead and Nevada counties down in southwest Arkansas. I am the coordinator of communications and external affairs at the University of Arkansas Community College here in Hope. I've been there for six years now, and so that is my day job, working day in, day out with the community college. And I love having the opportunity now to serve on the education committee. and was raised by public school educators and mom and dad. Grandmother was also a public school educator and then now work at the community college.
So I look forward to serving with each of y'all
Representative Eddie L. Armstrong
Unverified
4:22
in this session. I'm Charles Armstrong, representative District 30, Little Rock. A little something about me, I graduated from college long years ago. I won't tell the years with a degree in biology and chemistry. I worked for state government for 38 and a half years. I retired from the Arkansas National Guard with 37 years and 22 days. Then I decided to take on another task. I ran for Little Rock School Board, and I stayed on the school board for six years,
helped every office in the school board position, and I'm a stickler for education. My wife taught school in the Pulaski County School District for 41 years, and she retired and went back. So I'm a part of the educational system. I guess it's been in my blood all the time. But anyway, after coming off the Little Rock School Board, I know what's happening in the high schools, K-12. And we look at remediation on the college level, and I think until we fix the K-12 situation, we will always have remediation. So I'm looking forward to working with this committee, trying to come up with solutions of how we can better our educational system
and where we can rank higher than we are in the world as far
Mark Lowry
Unverified
5:33
as education is concerned. My name is Mark Lowry. I represent District 39, which consists of Maumelle, the communities of Morgan, Oak Grove, Marche, and also the Amboy community of North Little Rock. My background in education actually started with Representative Armstrong's wife teaching me in the seventh grade and putting me on the straight and narrow, and she wielded a
pretty good paddle, not that I ever found out. But I've had experience, worked with the Pulaski County School District in the 80s. I've been teaching at the university level since 2000. I have taught at Pulaski Tech. Had the privilege of teaching one semester at a Saturday class at UALR. And I'm currently a full-time instructor in the Department of Communication at the University of Central
Speaker 17
6:26
Arkansas. I'm Charlotte Vining Douglas, and I represent District 75.
Speaker 19
6:31
I have a lifelong history in education dating back to the 70s. So I come to this committee with a lot of secondary experience. And I would say that my passion in education was involving the community in education and developing partnerships in the business world. through an academy system that we had. And I look forward to being able to hear and give a voice to the business world
to figure out how we can develop a better product to send to the colleges and then on to the business world. Thank you. Hi, I'm Bruce Cozart. I'm from District 24,
Representative Bruce Cozart
Unverified
7:15
which is Garland County. I have about a third of Garland County west side. uh i'm kind of different than the rest of y'all i have uh i am not an educator i did serve on lake hamilton school board for 10 years that is kind of my background in the education part
um i was raised at school my dad was not a teacher but he was a bus mechanic so i come up on the other end of it so i i can tell you about the the non-classified part of the certified you know so if you want to know anything about that part of the education the hauling kids back and forth school i can probably tell you a little more about that But I'm a building contractor by trade, so I'm going to give a different perspective to this board, and I'm
Speaker 23
8:00
just happy to be here. Thank you. I'm James Ratliff. I represent District 60, part of Sharp County, part of Randolph County, all of Lawrence, and part of Greene County.
I taught school 28 years and retired. My dad taught 34 years before he retired. My wife teaches in the school system. My son-in-law drives a bus. My daughter-in-law works at school, and my daughter works at school. So my whole family is involved in education most of the way. Education is a passion I've
Speaker 15
8:28
had all my life and always will have. Thank you.
Speaker 25
8:33
I'm Sheila Lampkin, and I'm a retired math-slash-special-ed teacher from Monticello, and I'm glad to be here, and I'm just brief.
Speaker 27
8:42
John Eubanks, I'm representing District 74, Logan County mainly, and parts of Sebastian and Scott. Spent 10 years
Speaker 29
8:51
on the Paris school board, and my wife is a bookkeeper for the Paris school
Gary Deffenbaugh
Unverified
9:01
district. My name is Gary Deffenbaugh, and I represent District 79. I retired as a teacher coach, 39 years worth, And so I'm excited to be here, and hopefully I can help a little bit.
Representative Debra M. Hobbs
Unverified
9:16
Thanks. Good morning. I'm Debbie Hobbs, State Representative from Rogers. I taught various sciences on the secondary level in four different states and also worked for a time as an elementary school counselor. And like some of the rest of us, it's more years than I want to stop and realize. but I know my daughter currently teaches in an elementary school in Springdale so I know that education is not what it used to be and I'm very happy to be
Representative Robert E. Dale
Unverified
9:50
be serving on this committee. I'm Robert Dale. I represent District 68, which is Pope County and Van Buren County, and I'm I'm a retired mortgage banker, and I have been on the committee for this is my third
term, and I've had many experiences in here and look forward to serving this year. Thank you. Good morning.
Representative Karen S. Hopper
Unverified
10:37
I'm Karen Hopper. I represent District 100, which is a portion of Baxter County. And when I'm not here at the Capitol, I am employed at Arkansas State University Mountain Home as an associate vice chancellor.
Representative Jody Dickinson
Unverified
10:54
Good morning. I'm Jody Dickinson. I represent District 47, which is parts of Independence, parts of White, parts of Jackson, and all of Woodruff County. And I spent about 34 years in the classrooms working with our children, and I loved it. I still love the children. I just don't miss being in the classroom there anymore. This is my third term to serve on this committee.
And, again, I'm honored to be here and work with you on the committee and you out
Representative Mark Biviano
Unverified
11:39
there. Thank you. Good morning. I'm Mark Viviano. I represent District 46 in White County, which covers all Searcy and Kensett. Like one or two other members here, I'm not an educator, other than my time I spend in college, barely getting through college, that is. But I have an interest
and a passion about education. That's why I chose to be on this committee. It ties into so much of our economic development and the ability of our state to do well in the future that we have to take this extremely serious. And I look forward to the opportunity to serving. By background, I'm a corporate health care executive for a number of years, and I hope I can bring some a little bit different perspective to this committee. Thank
Representative John Catlett
Unverified
12:33
you. Hello, I'm Representative John Catlett.
I'm from District 73, which is Yale County, part of Perry, and part of Pope. My background is I'm a retired state trooper. Most of my adult life spent in law enforcement. Raised three kids in the school system, so I have real respect for our education system, here to maybe help improve it. Thank you. I'm
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
13:04
Homer Linderman. I represent District 53,
which is the eastern part of Cricket County. I spent 30 years in the classroom teaching high school agriculture. I graduated from ASU. Both of my children graduated from ASU, and I very proudly say I'm only daddy in the state that's got a son that teaches agri and a daughter that teaches agri. Both of my children teach now. I was a bad influence on both of them. I have a passion for education and mainly I have a passion for children and I'm here to hopefully help to improve the educational opportunities for our
Representative James McLean
Unverified
13:38
children in Arkansas thank you well I think as we can all see this is a distinguished group of folks to say the least who care about education who have been involved in education who have really important opinions about education this committee in terms of how we're going to kind of run things of course it's always going to be a little less informal and there it is on the house floor but we will you know follow parliament procedure when it comes to
your cell phones or things like that you know marks not going to have a basket at the door you got to put them in or anything like that if you need to use your phones that's fine you know I think the general rule is just put it on Don't vibrate, but if you want to use your phone, if you need to refer to it or whatever, that's okay. Otherwise than anything than that, we just run a professional committee in a business type setting just like we always do around here, so that's the main thing.
At this opportunity, I want to go ahead and recognize our staff, and I think to just put it as simply as I can, if these folks were in a court of law and had to talk about education, their opinion would be classified as expert level. And you just don't know how lucky I feel to have these folks helping me and helping this committee. And at this point, I'd like to let them introduce ourselves.
Speaker 50
15:14
Mr. Mark Hudson. Good morning, I'm Mark Hudson, excuse me, I staff the committee. This is my beginning of my 25th year with the Bureau of Legislative Research and it's all been with the Education Committee or on education related activities and so I'm glad to be here working with you all and look
Speaker 53
15:45
forward to it. Thank you. I'm Juanita Giles, and this will be my third session, the second with the Education Committee,
and I'm looking forward to working with Representative McLean and Representative Clemmer and all of you during the session. And if you need
Representative James McLean
Unverified
16:04
anything, holler. And that's the thing. You're going to need some things. And, you know, this is a complex deal that we're involved with here. And, you know, we're just not going to know everything in the era of term limits. But Mark and Juanita are outstanding at what they do.
And that goes without saying. So I would encourage you to get their cell phone numbers and latch on to them and be in their hip pockets. because, like I say, no one knows more about education policy than these folks right here. And to the freshmen, you know, just dive in and ask a lot of questions. And by the time this thing's over with, you'll be able to sit in a room with your superintendent and go toe-to-toe, and they'll think that you'll know what you're talking about. So just a couple of announcements before we kind of start talking about the tablets,
because one of the reasons we're here a little bit early today is kind of become acquainted with the tablets. Of course, during the session the committee will meet here on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10, unless we reschedule. A quorum must be present to start every meeting, and that's 11 members. And pursuant to the direction of House leadership, members will not be provided with hard copies of bills, thus the tablets. I asked about that.
Was it an either-or proposition? Could we have both? No. We're going to do the tablets, and we're going to make the tablets work. So, like I say, someone told me we've got half new people who don't know any better, and we've got half old hands like me who might complain for a couple of days, but that's okay. But we're going to figure out the tablets. And if someone absolutely needs a hard copy of a bill, we'll get you a hard copy of a bill. Let's not make it a practice if we can. We don't want to make anybody mad.
But here in a minute we're going to have a little tutorial on how to do the tablets. We also have a lot of folks who are going to be in this committee every time we make. These are the educational stakeholders, folks who are involved professionally with education who represent various interests, and they're here. And if they don't mind, starting with Ms. Morley, If y'all would just kind of stand up and just introduce yourselves and kind of let the committee know who you represent. Well, good morning. It's always a pleasure to be with you.
Speaker 57
18:30
I'm Donna Moy. I'm the president of the Arkansas Education Association. We represent members from preschool all the way up to higher ed, from bus driver, superintendent, you name it. This is my 35th year in public education. I've taught science and health, and my love is adaptive fiscal education and special olympics look forward to working with you too good
Speaker 59
18:56
morning i'm rich nagle executive director of the arkansas education
Speaker 63
19:17
Good morning. I'm Ron Harder with the Arkansas School Board Association. I was a member of the senior year and I'm a member of the ASPA. I've been honored in the legislature as well as doing the policy service that we have. I saw you walk around. Yeah, it's me. I'm a member of the senior year and I'm a member of the senior year and I'm a member of the senior year and I'm a member of the senior year.
Speaker 73
20:17
14 former nine-year member and chairman of the Arkansas State Board of Education Franklin with the Arkansas Association
Speaker 4
20:40
of Junior Colleges had 38 years experience working with community colleges and 17 years working here with the legislature representing the two-year college students of our colleges.
Speaker 74
20:53
Mike Leach with the Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges, Center for Student Success, which is a simple term aimed at helping the two-year colleges improve retention. Bill Abernathy, Director of Little Education and
Speaker 76
21:08
Association. I've been principal, coach, superintendent, two-year college president,
Speaker 73
21:29
and I still haven't gone home, so I'm the director of Will Education.
and I'd like to say something to this committee about how important you are to education and to me, education is non-partisan. We are for the kids of Arkansas and you that have worked with me know that I believe in that. And I know you will be the same way and when we finish this session, we will have even better to play out with Arkansas.
Representative James McLean
Unverified
22:02
Mr. Abernathy failed to mention that he is also a past chairman of this committee.
He was a third-termer when we began our first term, and I hope that the freshmen have as much affection for me as I have for him, you know, as a first-termer when you were a third-term Rand Steele. So thank you very much, sir. Yes, sir. . . .
Speaker 44
23:14
If it's okay, can you just take a couple minutes to kind of walk them
Speaker 83
23:28
through what's in it? Yes, sir. Okay. I've been here at every once in a minute. All right. We represent community colleges
Speaker 85
23:38
within the system and issue government. Good morning.
Speaker 68
23:40
I'm Richard Decker, the executive director. We work with school administrators already. Sometimes we're perceived Although we have
members, we also have here in many Brother.
Speaker 95
25:20
here is Bill Avernaschi's father-in-law but it's old Mattis was one of my first shifts up here so you come up here and you say Danny going back home run still but I look forward to working with each
Speaker 96
25:51
and every one of you look very good group of education. I was the youngest one of the first and I was the youngest one of the first and I was the We're here to send to them in any way possible.
Representative James McLean
Unverified
27:50
And members, just an addendum, Dr. Kimbrell will be here typically at every meeting. So he did have a scheduling conflict, but he is typically here every meeting.
Also, he wanted me to pass on his regrets as well. But please continue. Thank you.
Agenda
DISCUSSION OF ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Representative James McLean
Unverified
Representative Ann V. Clemmer
Unverified
Representative Brent Talley
Unverified
Representative Eddie L. Armstrong
Unverified
Mark Lowry
Unverified
Speaker 17
Speaker 19
Representative Bruce Cozart
Unverified
Speaker 23
Speaker 15
Speaker 25
Speaker 27
Speaker 29
Gary Deffenbaugh
Unverified
Representative Debra M. Hobbs
Unverified
Representative Robert E. Dale
Unverified
Representative Karen S. Hopper
Unverified
Representative Jody Dickinson
Unverified
Representative Mark Biviano
Unverified
Representative John Catlett
Unverified
Representative Homer Lenderman
Unverified
Speaker 50
Speaker 53
Speaker 57
Speaker 59
Speaker 63
Speaker 68
Speaker 8
Speaker 73
Speaker 4
Speaker 74
Speaker 76
Speaker 64
Speaker 44
Speaker 83
Speaker 85
Speaker 88
Speaker 90
Speaker 95
Speaker 96