ALC-Higher Education Subcommittee
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Members, if you would have a seat, we're going to start in the next minute. - I have, if you wanna turn this off
Speaker 6
0:19
real quick. - Well, this is nothing yet. - Right. - So, this is just. - Am I gonna.
Folks are going to call the meeting to order. Item B, report on institutions of higher education for annual certification or solvency. There's no action that we have to take on that, that report will be on your desk Friday. So we're going to move immediately to item C, and folks on the presentation on AI, if
you would come forward and take a seat at the table. Members, just by way of a little bit of introduction, these are students from Arkansas State, Valley school and use UCA we appreciate all the work they've done they're working closely with the department of higher ed I attended a meeting last week at UCA
on higher ed and I'm really impressed by all the work that's going on so the these folks have done some research there have really impressed me and the work they've done and their vision of what ai looks like going forward so uh folks would you please we'll start here on the my right if you would press the button right there in front of you and it'll turn green or red or it'll turn some color turn green and you would just go down the line and introduce yourself please uh well
Matt Carpenter
Unverified
2:25
hello everyone my name is matt carpenter i'm a
10th grader at valleyview high school in jonesboro arkansas and it is an honor to be here before you all today. And just real quick, I've worked with Senator Sullivan before about an interview for our school media class. So that's just kind of our history working together. So James, you want to go ahead and go?
Speaker 22
2:47
Hello, everyone. My name is Singho John. I'm a master's student in Arkansas State University. I've been working for Senator Sullivan since February, and I did a lot of research in terms of AI and AI usage within classrooms. I'm currently doing one with the Arkansas Department
of Higher Education, thanks to Senator Sullivan and Dr. Ken Warden, on AI perspectives within the classrooms, which would be elaborated more in this presentation today. Hello, everyone. My name
Johnny Toma
Unverified
3:11
is Johnny Toma. I'm a double major student at Arkansas State University. I'm studying finance and accounting, and I've been working for Senator Sullivan for about a year, and I'm very grateful for this opportunity. And, John,
you might fill the committee in on you were honored as one of, I think, 15 people nationally. Explain, let's say a word or two about that, please. So I was very
Johnny Toma
Unverified
3:33
fortunate to be selected to study as one of 15 people at Harvard University this
summer. I'll be studying public policy and international affairs, and I'm looking forward to a possible grad program over there. These
folks all started out as interns for me, and now I'm their intern. Next, please. All right,
Speaker 33
3:53
hello. I am Honey Norfolk. I am a double major in Engineering, Physics, and Sociology at the University of
Speaker 34
3:58
Central Arkansas. I do some of my own research on AI and its social impact on education at the University of Central Arkansas, and I've just been invited to be here to help support our wonderful leaders here for this
Speaker 36
4:10
conversation. And hello, I am Kyle Urban. I am also from University of Central Arkansas. I am an undergraduate in linguistics, and I met Senator Dan Sullivan at the STEM posters of the Capitol presenting my research on large language models and their ability to understand implied language.
Representative Bruce Cozart
Unverified
4:36
Go ahead. I just heard that one of you came from Lake Hamilton School. Is that correct?
That would be me, sir. Yes, sir. You know, that's my home school. That's where I went and graduated. We're proud to have you here, and it looks like you're representing us
really well. Thank you. Continue on. I really appreciate that. And members, I would encourage you, if you haven't reached out to your higher ed communities and your local high schools, there are some very qualified people that know a lot about what you're going to hear about.
Johnny Toma
Unverified
5:10
So with that, folks, go ahead. So today we'll be discussing the future of higher education within K-12 and also colleges here in Arkansas.
And we'll start with James discussing that.
Speaker 22
5:21
So to start off, I want to start with the elephant in the room. I think when we talk about AI, people usually think of employment rates. And employment rates, it is true that it has been falling since the creation of AI in 2022 and since its implementation into businesses in 2023. But while I was doing research in this topic, I found something very interesting and similar, which is this next graph you see right here. Now, this is the graph of employment rates from 1989 to 1993.
This was when computers began being implemented within businesses similarly to the United States. But as you might all know, what happened after computers were assimilated was almost a golden age for the U.S., where a lot of small businesses appeared, a lot of new businesses appeared, a lot of employment rates happened. As you know, AI really is a tool just like a computer, and history repeats itself. It may affect the overall employment rates currently, and it might go a downward trend. But then when we have a good strategic plan to be able to use AI effectively within not only classrooms but in businesses,
we would be able to bring another dawn of the golden age for the United States. When you go down, the only way you can go is up. And I believe that when we are able to use AI effectively,
Speaker 26
6:37
we're going to go in a very upward trajectory using AI as a very good tool, such as a computer.
Johnny Toma
Unverified
6:45
I'd like to speak about the competitive advantage that implementing AI K-12 and in the higher education programs here in Arkansas. So if we teach students when they're young how to master AI, they'll be more prepared to contribute to society when they're ready to enter the workforce.
They'll have access to better internships, competitive internships, and they'll also have access to the high-paying jobs that the tech industry is now providing. As with computers, artificial intelligence is here to stay. Currently, Arkansas is becoming a tech hub. We have a $4 to $10 billion data center being built in West Memphis. We have another $6 billion data center being built here in Little Rock. And within the next few years, we're going to have another two to three data centers being built. And with this, the tech jobs are going to be on the rise. And we don't need those jobs to go to people from other states.
If we do a good job of teaching our K-12 and college students how to use AI at the maximum level possible, those jobs will stay in Arkansas. And the companies that come here and start data centers will only hire from Arkansas, which will be great for everyone here. I'd also like to talk about the workforce and how AI integrates with that. So according to an anthropic report, Arkansas ranks 46 out of 50 states in AI usage. About 14% of all the businesses here in Arkansas are using AI, and this is a very low number.
The Federal Reserve in Dallas said that the wage growth for AI-exposed industries is actually growing. So the low-level jobs are being siphoned out because of AI, but those jobs that AI can't take over, the wages are increasing. If we teach our students how to be in that higher echelon of people with the skill set to use AI, they'll be getting paid more and they'll have a better job security than everyone else. And like Google, AI is going to be used probably just as much as Google is going to be in the next few years. I believe that it's going to replace Google. It has a lot more information.
And the more we teach students how to use it, the more opportunities it's going to bring for Arkansas and for our citizens. The companies are going to move over here. They're going to bring their businesses here. And they're going to hire from our talent pool, which is going to just do tremendous things for our economic growth as well as our citizens. And then I would also like to discuss the necessities for us teaching the students AI. A lot of these students, K through 12, they're very easily influenced. And with this, it's our job to ensure that we provide a curriculum that is going to give them the opportunity to learn about ethics
and how to use AI for the betterment of society and not for their own personal gain. According to an FBI special agent, the average age of cybersecurity crimes, the people arrested for cybersecurity crimes is 19. And the average age of people arrested for regular crimes is 37. And this shows that students and a lot of young people are more often and more likely to commit a cyber crime. And according to a Harvard Business Review study, phishing, which is a type of cybersecurity scam through the emails, is 95% more cost effective now because of AI.
You just put in a prompt in a chat bot, it gives you an email, you can just spam send that to a bunch of people. And also in their study, out of 112 people, 60% of them fell for AI-related scams. And with AI, amateurs, students who are looking for a way to make a quick buck, are just as effective as experts. In the past, you had to spend years learning how to master your craft of scamming. You had things like the VTriad manual that taught you how to be an effective scammer. But now amateurs can just go on chatbots and do it.
So if we teach AI in schools and we teach students how to use it as a tool, then we'll dissuade them from using
it as a way to facilitate crime. Yeah, let me see if I can encapsulate that a little bit. So what you're telling us is with the growth of data centers and such in the state that in our schools, elementary through K-12, it's going to be critical that we are teaching the proper use of AI and appropriate use all the way through our grades. And from what I'm hearing, that we're not doing as well as we need to be doing in the future.
Speaker 17
10:55
Is that correct? Yes, sir, that's correct. Great. Okay, go ahead. And now I'll
Speaker 22
11:05
pass it on to James. Now, we're going to talk about actual research. Currently I'm conducting a research, as I've already said, thanks to the co-chair, Senator Sullivan's introduction to Dr. Ken Warden and Ms. Kelly Griffin within the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, to really find out in surveying nine different districts, which are Little Rock, Springdale, Jonesboro, Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Hot Springs, Texarkana, Eldorado, and Strugart, the educators' perspectives within the classrooms on AI usage for students.
And while I'm doing this survey, among them, 73% of teachers agree that schools should teach students how to use AI responsibly. As Johnny said, there's a lot of crime, such as cybercrime risks. There's many risks when it comes to morality and when it comes to ethics. And responsible use of AI is key to preserving academic integrity. 74% of teachers agree that students who have less access to AI tools will be at a disadvantage. This is why infrastructure and standardization, such as the Access Act, will be very important in AI integration in
the coming future. 66% of teachers disagree that students should be able to use AI in their homeworks. This is because 100% of them, everyone, agrees that when you use AI the wrong way, students lose critical thinking skills. This really places the ethical and responsible use of AI tools and center stage. Over 97% of teachers agree that AI needs to be managed at least in a district level, and 75% of teachers agree that they would welcome training on using AI effectively. This means that teachers around the state would welcome legislative
implementation in some way regarding management and training for AI tool usage within classrooms for both educators and students. Now passing it off to Johnny Toma, this will be the timeline for the next five years
Speaker 51
12:45
within the future of education in K to 12 and higher education on AI usage. So I'm a college of business
Johnny Toma
Unverified
12:53
student in A-State, and I'd like to talk about how they've implemented AI in the college of business at my university. So in my cost accounting class, we have a project once a semester where we have to do a case study, and we're allowed and encouraged to use AI because
it's a very challenging data set. And in my accounting technologies class, we use AI daily for analyzing large amounts of data and also coding. AI is very good at teaching students how to code. And in our tax accounting class, the concepts that we cover are very challenging, and our professor recommends that we use chatbots outside of class to help explain everything that we covered while we're in the class. And I'd like to discuss how the Access Act can help us integrate AI K-12 and in the colleges in Arkansas.
So the AR system is now, the Arkansas education system is now very standardized because of the ACCESS Act. The course codes are virtually the same across the universities. You can transfer credits easily, and we might be having a syllabus coming too. James might be working on that project to have a standardized syllabus for the entire state. But what we'd like to do is create an AI library that uses the current infrastructure of the ACCESS system, and it provides AI tools to K-12 students and also all the students who are in the universities in Arkansas.
And I'd like to discuss how some of these universities have already implemented their own programs and how we can do something similar with the library, the AI library. So at the University of the Ozarks, they use AIs in courses like climate science, where they receive decades' worth of data from NASA, and they analyze it and see how the climate is changing throughout the U.S. and throughout the world. And then in their urban forest management class, I thought this was very cool, they take aerial photos, and they use AI to analyze those photos, and they create a map of all the trees that are in urban environments and also what type of tree they are and their goal with
this is to provide cleaner air in urban environments and they also expressed interest in having an AI library. They believe that if their high school if the high school students in Arkansas who are coming to the University of Ozarks are already exposed to AI they won't be blindsided when they have things like data visualization and predictive models. If they can study this stuff in high school and get a general understanding of it they'll be more prepared for success when they go to higher education. And UCA has already implemented a very interesting platform. It was
created by their faculty. They have AI tutors. They have practice exams that are AI generated. There's an option for you to take a picture of your homework and AI will analyze it, tell you where you went wrong with certain steps, and also provide you the steps necessary to get to the right answer. And now I'll pass it back to James
Speaker 43
15:36
to discuss more. So the future of AI within five years. Before that, I do want to
Speaker 22
15:42
also talk about an initiative that Senator Sullivan and we discussed, which was the AI library to be used within different universities. Because such as
University of Central Arkansas and University of Ozarks, they have a great system when it comes to AI usage. And when you have an AI library that all the universities within Arkansas, thanks to the Access Act, could have access to, that would be a very great asset for the students to be able to learn about AI with these effective tools that are working. Now let's talk about the future of AI within five years. I want to start off with a quote. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. This is a quote by Abraham Lincoln that describes the world we live in today. This is because to be a great leader, you need to surround yourself with the best
people you can find. Another quote from Ronald Reagan. AI is a very, very powerful tool, not only within the next five years, but even now, AI can serve as a very powerful assistant due to a technology called the AI agents. They can serve as expert advisors that were only accessible to the most impactful leaders in history. With AI, everyone will be a one-man army, a leader with a swarm of AI agents that could help with any task. This person would need to use AI responsibly, have agency, and lead AI, not to be led by it.
The only reason we are not there yet is because currently AI are yes-men. They are not assistants with free speech. So I
Johnny Toma
Unverified
17:07
would like to discuss free speech and AI as it comes to K-12 and also in higher education. So many of the major chatbots that we use now, Gemini, ChatGBT, Grok, they're all made by a handful of small companies, and they have a large market share of the questions and the reasoning used in AI chatbots. So, you know, one of the important things for us as citizens of Arkansas
and also the United States is that the government can't censor or manipulate public opinion. And this is fundamental to our democracy. However, these handful of companies that are controlling these major chatbots, they are allowed to censor and they are allowed to manipulate the public. Now, we all agree that corporations should have the freedom of speech to, you know, give a corporate stance on something. But I believe, as the Learns Act pertains, that indoctrination, especially in the K-12 school system in Arkansas, should be free of indoctrination. And a lot of these chatbots are accessible to students K-12. And if you ask them
questions that we don't allow to be discussed by teachers in K-12 because of the indoctrination requirement from the Learns Act, these chatbots aren't held to the same standard. So I believe that for the systems that we have in school, they should be held to the same standard. We should determine what can and can't be said to the students from the chatbots, and it should be regulated by you guys. And I'd also like to discuss the intervention, so in the form of the ethics training. So A-State taught me how to use accounting to the maximum ability possible, but with that, you know, there comes the possibility of me committing fraud or something like that.
And while they taught me how to use accounting to the maximum level possible, they also taught me the ethics, how to put my community first. And this is something that we really need to do for our students K-12 so they have access to use AI at the maximum level possible, but they're also aware that they need to
Speaker 22
19:03
use it for the betterment of our society. Now, moving on to K-12 and higher education, how does this connect back to K-12 and higher education? The important thing now is to be a great leader, and to be a great leader, it requires unquestionable integrity.
Integrity can be broken down to agency, character, ethics, and morality. These will be the most important aspects of humanity moving forward. How do we do this? I believe that Ronald Reagan said it best. Within the covers of the Bible are all the answers for all the problems that men face. In terms of education in the future, we need to go back to agency, character, ethics, and moral education. And the best way to do that would be to follow, again, going back to character education, to ethics education, based on the Bible.
Johnny Toma
Unverified
19:53
So, as I like to close, I like to point that the time to act is now. AI is how people are understanding the world. And I believe it's our job to provide something like an AI library as well as ethics trainings to the K-12 students to better prepare them for the careers that are now using AI and requiring AI. And I believe that we should also ensure that the systems remain accountable and open to responsible inquiry. It's important for us to be able to explore our ideas and things that we want to learn about to the maximum ability possible,
but also be taught how to use it to
Speaker 29
20:28
innovate for the society and how to do it all responsibly. Thank
you. Folks, I appreciate your comments. Mac, I think you have some boots-on-the-ground experience at school, so I know you have had some teachers communicate. Can you share
that with us in the next couple minutes? I would love to, and thank you. Like I
Speaker 58
20:49
said before, it is an honor to be here today. I see some familiar faces out here. senator davis i was your page just a few years ago representative beck i think he may be here
somewhere but i was his page just last year and just uh real quick i would like to thank senator sullivan thank you for letting us be here today so johnny and james over here um talked about the use of ai in high school colleges and how it can be used in the workplace right now i'm going to talk about mainly how it's used in high school like he said boots on the ground so i believe that AI can be used greatly to enhance learning opportunities when it is used correctly. When AI is used the wrong way, that's when you start getting into problems. Recently, I had the great
honor of talking to a group of teachers and their personal thoughts on AI and how or if they are using it in their classrooms. I had some responses where teachers were optimistic about the use of AI and other teachers that were not very happy with it at all so before I start talking about these responses I want you all to keep something in mind most of these teachers no matter whether or not they were using it in their classroom or not they all had pretty much the same belief is that whenever AI it is here to stay so we might as well go ahead and teach kids how to use it so
whenever they get into the real world someday they're not caught off guard we need to teach them how to use it in high school so let's see here so they've kind of talked about it and sorry if I'm kind of repeating the same thing but we need to teach students how to use it the right way because it can be used in the right way whenever you need help with homework or something you just take a picture and if you really ask it to explain it it'll do it for you so we just got a need to want to put into the effort so I'm going to go ahead and start with some of the responses that
i got this teacher in particular is an english teacher she's not open to the use of ai at all um let's see here she's concerned that when students tell her that here's the deal students are always like okay i'm going to use ai to help me get ideas but really they just use the ai version they don't use it to help them get ideas so that is her concern with this one because she wants the student's thoughts. She doesn't want the AI's thoughts. So the second teacher that I talked to
is a professional communications teacher. He told me that he is concerned about the use of AI in classrooms because it has brought the concern upon teachers to wonder if anything that's well written, if it was even written by the student or not. And I can kind of personally testify that for a second. So let me kind of go on this for a second. Whenever I'm writing, whenever I'm writing something for my English class, I often wonder, well, do I need to kind of dumb this down? Because I don't want to sound too smart, you know, talking to my friends, I don't sound that smart. And that's
when my teacher sees me the most. So whenever I'm actually using my brain here. Legislators had the same problem. I'm just worried that my teachers are going to think that it was AI. And there's no, you have AI checkers, but they're never really accurate. There's no way to tell if they're accurate or not so that's just kind of a concern with that one so back to the pro-com teacher uh he was overhearing a conversation and he told me that he heard a student say why would I even need
to write a poem when Chad UBT can make one for me so this just kind of ties into what we've been saying about how we need to start teaching it responsibly so real quick here um
I'm gonna kind of can you kind of summarize what you've got I
Speaker 58
24:31
want to hear from you let me go ahead and go down here. I had some more teacher responses, but I'll just go ahead and summarize it here. These teachers all have their personal concerns about AI, and I think it's valuable to hear what they think because they're shaping how the next generation is going to use AI. I, like most
teachers, believe, and all of us believe, that we need to start teaching it responsibly. Let's see here. And speaking of my own experiences, I don't think that it's just teachers that need to be responsible with this me and other students like us who understand how to use ai need to testify to our peers you know here's how we can use it honestly and we don't need to just put all the responsibility in the teacher's hands we as students can be good examples and testify to that as well so let's see here um it's an honor to be here before you all today and thank you all for
listening to us thank you and our folks from uca you're you didn't prepare come prepared to speak but
you were spoken about and if we talk about you you ought to be able to respond to it so just tell us briefly um you you're you're kind of raised up for saying uca has some
good programs can you kind of describe what those are and how you do it hey
Speaker 34
25:49
so yeah the university of central arkansas we have a wonderful professor her name is dr amy hawkins and she's done a really good
job creating a almost like AI learning center it's the center for teaching and excellence but we have a lot of AI teaching trainings for professors and students if they're welcome to come if they have an interest but the main goal that she's been tackling is just reaffirming our professors that this is a new technology but you it's better for you to learn it now instead of letting it take you over and she's done a really good job for like helping our professors learn it They have book groups on like the ethics, how to implement it into their teaching, how to handle academic dishonesty and things like that.
So that's really been the biggest like support that we've had from the University of Central Arkansas, which has been
great. Great. Thank you. And members, we're going to this is just the first of several. I hope that we have going forward. I'm going to call it kind of a hard stop at three thirty. We have another group that once I need to get up here, these this group will be out in the foyer afterwards. you're welcome to meet with them talk with them but they've already have a job working for me so you can't recruit them and I would say go out and recruit your own team if you want them
and again I started out they called themselves interns and after about 10 minutes I realized they're way out ahead of me and I'm so thankful for the effort they put a lot of work in they had a candidate forum we had Commissioner Warden at ASU that they put that on they have several other events that are that they are running and just doing a great job of and I will mention this that I met with a Jonesboro school district who is trying to make sure all their
students are performing up to level at third grade great goal but they have a huge churn kids that come in at pre-k they leave the school they come back to school they leave the school again and that tends to pull their grade overall grade down so they need to analyze that data to say these are the kids that churn this where they when they came in they were here when they left they were there when they came back to us they were here and help us factor that that's the next
task I'm giving to these guys did you know that yes surprise surprise they're also working with the Chancellor at ASU to do that. So we'll field just a few questions. Representative Ladyman, you're recognized. Thank
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
28:19
you, Mr. Chairman. I'm over here, guys. Well, thank you all for being here. And, Dan, thank you for putting this together. Very interesting. I mean, great to have you guys here, especially Matt from Valley View. My son's graduated from Valley View.
I was a soccer coach there for a few years. You did a very good job representing our school. so appreciate that. ASU is in my district as well as Dan's, so you guys did great. You see, we didn't hear much about you, but I know your school's great. So, real quick, you talked about the teachers. Can y'all, what about the students? I know you all are all in. I mean, I can tell that. You've studied this. You like it. You know, you're going to go forward with it, and you've got suggestions. What about your classmates? Are they all on board?
Do you talk to people in your classes that are like some of the teachers, Matt, that you mentioned, that aren't into it? Can you give us a feel for that? Maybe all three of you all with your
different schools. Well, I'm going to limit it to one response. So, Johnny and Sin, I think you two guys are the chair of this group, so I'll let one of you two respond.
Speaker 22
29:34
Go ahead. There really are mixed reactions when it comes to students and AI usage, especially in the arts. They really are negative about AI usage because within the arts and different things, they're worried about the copyright that they have.
Like, are you sealing from different artists' pieces to make art that's not your own, your own? So that is a really big worry. But then when it comes to others like public policy, I don't think there's denying on all of the students that they realize that this is a very effective and powerful tool. And it is being used actually in the real-world fields, where in the workplace that they're
Speaker 26
30:05
going to go to within their careers, it is already being utilized. And students
realize that. And members, you know, right now we are supposed to have common course codes.
The problem in doing that is they have different syllabus. They have different objectives. They may be the same objective. They're written differently. The same thing with the materials that are out there for resources. So we can plug that into AI, and AI can come up with what the objective is that they can use across the board. And I know Commissioner Warden is working on that right now. And just the ability of AI to consolidate that material is unbelievable.
Folks, thank you for being here. You mentioned me way too much. This has been your work and what you've done. And, again, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your efforts. Thank you very much, and you're dismissed. Thank you. And while they were ending, you'll notice on your agenda discussion of Arkansas accelerated common sense. You can read that for yourself. Originally, we had planned on having the goal is to have our schools working with the community,
working with higher ed, and working with K-12. Pine Bluff has really got some good things going on. They have a strong community input. They have UAPBs doing an excellent job of partnering with the school, and the school district is really doing a good job in their pre-K and on up working. They were going to come and show up and testify here today, UAPB and K-12. They were not able to be here today, but we do have a community resource.
Folks, if you could come to the table, Pastor Jesse and your team could come to the table, please. They are the community outreach group in Pine Bluff, and I will let them kind of introduce themselves. They're handing out a little handout right now. Pastor Jesse is leading the way here, and folks, just so you know, I visited his office a few weeks ago, and one of the things he showed me is he has letters from six different presidents commending his work and their group's work in the
community of pine bluff so this is not a group of people that are just they've got the creds and they've got the experience in their community and again i can't tell you how much i appreciate them being here and the efforts they have in representing their community and starting with pastor jesse if you all would introduce yourselves none of you were employed by the school district correct so this is a community effort but jesse go
Jessse Turner
Unverified
32:51
ahead and introduce yourselves again my name is jesse Turner, local pastor in Pine Bluff, and now pastor emeritus for the Elm Grove Baptist
Church, which is the oldest formed Baptist African-American church in this state, and so I was glad to serve there for 31 years. Thank you, Senator, for giving us the opportunity, Senator Sullivan, and to the rest of the distinguished officials here. We're just glad and excited. I'm sorry to interrupt, but would you let the rest of the folks, let's let them
introduce themselves too, please. If you'll just hit the button there and
Yolanda Pitts
Unverified
33:31
tell us who you are. Thank you. Hello, my name is Yolanda Pitts and I'm the pastor of the Turning Point International Outreach Ministries. I'm also the executive director of the Turning Point Youth Center, which is a non-profit
Sonia Watkins
Unverified
33:49
organization. Thank you. Hello, my name is Dr. Sonia Watkins. I have a business that is called Rue Rose Coaching by Sonia.
James Hill
Unverified
33:59
Hello, my name is James Hill, Jr.
I'm a minister at House of Braves and Living Church. I'm the founder and president of BBFK, meaning being brothers for the kids. And I'm also an outstanding warrior for Passport Patrol inside our school district in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
Alexander Watkins
Unverified
34:20
Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. My name is Alexander Watkins, Sr. I'm the associate pastor of the St. Andrew Missionary Baptist Church located in Pine Bluff.
I'm also a proud U.S. Navy veteran, and I'm also a youth coach, coach basketball and football, and again, a volunteer of Pastors on Patrol. Thank you. And Mr.
Turner, go ahead. Thank you. Thank
Jessse Turner
Unverified
34:49
you, sir. As I was saying, we serve as the president of the Pine Bluff Faith Community Coalition Ministerial Alliance in Pine Bluff, where we work with the schools. We work in all of the schools in Pine Bluff, in the Watson Chapel District,
Pine Bluff School District, as well as Friendship Aspire Public Charter School. A little bit about me. I am a graduate of Southern New Hampshire University, where I earned a master's degree in community economic development. I'm a 30-year veteran of crime prevention tools. I'm a crime prevention practitioner. I led the development of two federal programs in our city of Pine Bluff.
That is a program through the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. It was called Weed and Seed. Weed means to weed out crime. Seed means to seed in positive programs that will keep crime from coming back. Also, it had four components. There was law enforcement. There was community policing. There was prevention, intervention, and treatment. And there was neighborhood restoration. So these four components went with the Weed and Seed program in Pine Bluff.
Also, I've been working extensively with our Pine Bluff schools since 1997. And so from 1997, we did mentoring. We did other programs that would benefit our young people. And we have a program called Pen or Pencil. Pen or Pencil. Pen stands for penitentiary. Pencil stands for education. As we implement this program in the schools, we try and push kids away from the negative behaviors that would cause them to be in that pipeline to the prison.
And we push them towards the pencil, which is education, because we want them to be productive young people. In our work at these schools, we have participated in a number of things. The pastors on patrol has been recognized nationally for our work. We've also, the work that we do has also been mentioned on the Congress floor by Representative Westerman.
It has shown, our work has shown that we have reduced negative and violent behavior by at least 33% in one of our schools. In another school that we did bullying, anti-bullying training, we had the superintendent to report that there was a 75% reduction in referrals. And another thing that we did, we did some things at 34th Avenue School that showed a 15% reduction in negative behaviors.
So one of the major things that we do as pastors on patrol, we're there, we walk the halls, we encourage our students, and let me just say this too, as pastors, we don't go there and we don't go into the schools and try to influence anyone about their faith. We go there to help them learn and to encourage them to graduate from schools.
So I just want to say that right now. Also, as we combine two different national organizations to produce our product in the schools, we use the National Alliance of Faith and Justice, which is an organization out of Washington, D.C. That organization we use to promote the six principles of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., programs that we call from nonviolence to no-violence.
And when we use the no-violence approach, we tell the kids, we want you to not bully, not fight, not have demeaning language against another student, no fighting, no hitting, no pushing. This is part of our non-violence approach with the National Alliance of Faith and Justice. And also we use civil rights template, but we kind of turn it around a little bit when we are using it.
We talk to them about Rosa Parks and the bus boycott. But the way we use it is we ask kids to boycott the negative behavior. we ask them to take a stand but keep a seat we want them to take a stand by keeping their seat not moving messing around with other people not focusing on other things but keep a seat stay in your classroom stay in your seat listen to what the teacher is saying so that you will be
able to learn. And we also tell them one thing special is that if you want to make A's, all A's in your classes, whatever class you're in, we believe that you can make all A's. How do you do that? Simply by listening. Listening. If they listen to the things that the teacher is saying and writing on the board, she's never going to give them a test on something that she has not talk to them about. So we encourage them to listen. And so those are some of the things that
we do to get our kids to make learning become fun. And so those things that we are talking about, they actually work. And as pastors on patrol, we are just a presence there. Our presence there as clergymen causes our young people to pick up and become more excited. The teachers are excited.
The students are excited just to see us on the campus. And when we come to the campus, we always ask our ministers our pastors that we don't need but one hour per week if you give us one hour per week and be on that campus where the students can see you you'll make a difference and this is how we make a difference we also use these programs but just our presence there on the campus make the students and the teachers and those custodians who are working there feel a lot
better about seeing a pastor. We often hear those students who walk the hallway when we're walking there. Some will point and say, that's my pastor there. That's the minister at my church. They like that. They want to see that. And this is what we do. We're just, if I can see it like this, we're just a church on display when we're walking the halls. They see us. They'll run to us. They will ask us, would you pray for me?
Because we always have a good word for them. We never say, I need to pray for you, Johnny. I need to pray for you, Willie, because you just look like you need praying for. We don't do that. That's not our purpose. Our purpose is to encourage, to get them to get their lessons out, to be good citizens, because we want to promote citizenship and scholarship. Those are the things that we do. There's another program that we work on that we call API.
And that API stands for At Promise Institute. We as pastors believe that every child, we don't call them at risk. We stop calling them at risk. But we call them at promise. Because every child in the school, no matter who they are, has promise. And we try to pull that out of them by doing the things that we do. And so PBI-CBR stands for Pine Bluff Interested Citizens for Voter Registration.
Also, let me also regress just a little bit and talk about the Woodson Center. The Woodson Center is another national group that we work with. The Woodson Center helps us with the Black History Party. The National Alliance of Faith and Justice help us with the six principles of Martin Luther King and teach in nonviolence. But when we come down to the Woodson Center, they have a curriculum, K-12. It's free. It's online. Anybody can get it.
The Woodson Center teaches about lesser-known African Americans. There are so many African Americans that our young people don't know about. During Black History Month, we don't talk about, well, we do mention them, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, but we start asking them about, do you know who Biddy Mason is? Do you know who Robert Smalls is? Do you know who Elijah McCoy is?
We ask them about the lesser known African Americans. We don't focus on the past. We focus on the present. We don't focus on what they did to me. We focus on what I can be. We can't live in the past and try to defeat the ghost of the past, but we want our kids to look forward. And so that's what we do with the Woodson Center lessons. We want our kids to focus on what they can do, what their skills bring to them.
Because oft times we talk about the hanging, the whippings, the mistreatment. We don't leave that out. But we want to talk to them about the future. Because you can't change what has already happened. You can't do anything about the future. So what they have is right now. And we want to teach them right now how to be the best that they can be. And it's in them. Every one of them has promise, and so we are there to try to get these kids to understand that you have promise.
Don't just stay on that old thing, but look at a new thing that you can do. And so the PBI-CBR has developed programs aimed at providing positive and enjoyable activities for Pine Bluff schools and the public charter schools. These programs focus on cultivating leadership, character development, and sound decision making, because they need to learn how to make good decisions.
It's not always you've got a conflict that you need to start fighting. We want them to look at how can I solve this problem without having a fist to cuff or how to go to fighting. We talk to them. We encourage them to make sound decisions. And for these young individuals, we emphasize that it is the pen or the pencil for them, highlighting the importance of education, learning, and making thoughtful choices.
Pen stands for penitentiary. Pencil stands for education. It's a choice, and we tell them that's a choice you make. Some choices you make can be long-lasting and life-changing, and we want them to understand that. The primary goal of PBI-CVR is sponsoring these programs to develop and empower our young ladies and our young gentlemen in our schools to become future leaders and nonviolent
through regular meetings that we have at the Watson Chapel School District. We have projects. They go to public events. They are wildcats. They call themselves the Watson Chapel Wildcats Society Ladies' Club and Watson Chapel Wildcats Society Gentlemen's Club. These young men and young ladies, we are building to become leaders. We do this in Pine Bluff, and we do this in the schools.
We guide them to make good decisions. At home, we don't leave at home. We have them to be respectful at home and in the community. We encourage them to become critical thinkers. Don't just take what somebody says, but become critical thinkers. Think about what's being told you. critical thinkers about non-violence, critical thinkers about civic responsibility and academic success.
PBI sponsorship ensures that these young scholars have structured opportunities to grow and to be responsible and to become community-minded. We have them doing a number of things that relate to community service. And so we want them to be the best that they can. The members have met with the Rotary Club in Pine Bluff. They have been exposed to adult role models in the community.
They have done leadership services in the community, interacting with other scholars to help in community service, leadership, and participation. We want our children to be the best that they can be, And the only way that that can happen is that we as clergymen, we as a community, engage with them on the campus. We ask for one hour per week.
Make yourself visible. Choose your time that you want to go. If you want to go on Wednesday, go on a Wednesday. If you want to go on whatever day you want to pick, all we ask for is one hour per week. I know we've
got five preachers down there. All right. I know you could keep on going. Could you wrap it up here, please? Because I want
to give members a chance to ask questions that they have. But, again, thank you very much. If you
Jessse Turner
Unverified
50:11
could wrap up, I'd appreciate it. All right. All we're saying to us is that the community must get engaged with our schools.
The proficiency is the civil rights issue of today. Not what went on then, but the civil rights issue of today is proficiency. Proficiency in math, science, English, social studies. These are the civil rights issues today. We have too many kids falling through the cracks, and we have too many resources out here that can help them. We can't turn our back on these children.
They need us. They are the future now, and they will be the future when the
time comes. Thank you so much. Representative McRue, you had a question. You're
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
51:07
recognized. Chairman and thank y'all for being here with us today I applaud what you're doing I think it's great the impact that you're not just complaining about it that you're out there and doing something to it my question is a lot of the problems in the younger generations is the drugs and alcohol that
come into them are y'all seeing what you're doing make an impact in an
Jessse Turner
Unverified
51:38
look at all of it. Because there's a program that we have that we use. I basically do that. It's called DEFI, Drug Education for Youth. Helping them to understand about this vaping.
Reverend has, we keep our eye on the kids because they do things that they feel like they can get away with. We don't claim to be perfect, but sometimes some of the kids will bring a vape to school. They'll hide it. But we do what needs to be done to stop that.
You have to talk to them and let them know because they get in trouble for that. And we talk to them, and we take that, and we give it to the proper authority. And then they'll do the dealing with the kid. We don't. But that's what we do. We do talk to them about drugs, alcohol. We show videos on that. We do have that where we show them about marijuana, all those kind of drugs that will be harmful to them.
Representative Duke, you're recognized for a question. Thank
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
53:03
you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for the latitude and let me ask a question since I'm not a member. But first of all, I think what you all are doing is absolutely amazing, and I'm so glad that I was here today to hear your testimony and what you're doing. I mean, that's what it's all about is people in communities getting involved
and getting engaged. So my question is, some of these things as I look through your packet are just like great programs. Do you have templates for other communities that want to, I mean, I'm looking at this going, we're having discussions about this in my area, similar things.
And I actually texted one person saying, hey, I think this might fit some of these, what we were looking about and talking about how to help our kids and help our young adults. So do you have templates? Do
Speaker 83
53:50
you push this out into other schools? Or how does that work?
Jessse Turner
Unverified
53:56
Well, when it comes to the programs, they are trademarked. But we can share with those, help those communities, set them up to be able to do what we do.
But the trademark comes from Washington, D.C., because the National Alliance has trademarks. But when it comes to the curriculum of learning about the African American history, that's a free program. I really spoke to Dr. Oliva about it before. He has indicated that he would use it on the website as a resource because it talks about the folks that we don't know.
It gives them vocabulary, it teaches them skills in terms of what that particular person may be doing, just say like a Biddy Mason, to learn how, as Biddy Mason did, she was a slave, she was born a slave, but she died a millionaire. She learned how to buy property, she learned how to get some of her fellows free by paying for it. She built schools, and so when you hear about a Biddy Mason, her name really is Bridget, but they call her Biddy.
She was born a slave, but died a millionaire, and that's what we want those kids to understand. You might have problems, she had problems, but you can become what's in you, but we have to pull that out. That's that promise that's in them, and we call it that promise,
Speaker 89
55:30
and we just believe. We don't call the child at risk. We always refer to them as that promise. I'm sorry,
but this is one of the reasons we're having this group here, because
it's about the community, it's about the school, it's about higher ed,
it's about the communities that pull together to do this. And I think Pine Bluff is doing such a good job, an admirable job. And, again, I appreciate you being here. I apologize. I interrupted. Go ahead.
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
55:56
No worries. I just was saying, when you first mentioned the promise, So it makes me think of that song, I Am a Promise, which I think is an absolutely fantastic way that you are reaching the kids because they are that. So are your programs like the pastor's program that you have and the gentleman's and lady's clubs that you have, are those trademark programs or are those ones that you all started with in your community?
Jessse Turner
Unverified
56:18
No, ma'am. That program, the gentleman's club started by Mr. Crockett. He's a teacher over there at Watson Chapel. And what we did, we just came along to support that because we were already there walking the halls and encouraging the students. And because of the networking that we have, I just used some of those programs to help them. Recently, we just brought a judge in to speak to them. We did a gun violence deal with them because we say use words, not weapons, to solve your problems.
And so we did a National Day of Concerned Gun Violence thing that they led, getting other students to sign a pledge not to bring a gun to school. So we used kind of innovative things with them to help them understand what the problem is and how they can solve that problem. And this is where the critical thinking comes from. We want them to be able to look at something and be able to figure out what's the best choice. But we know pin or pencil. They know that
Take that negative you go into the pin You're gonna be on a fast track really, but the pencil will put you in a position to where you can become
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
57:35
a productive citizen Well, thank you. Thank you senator Sullivan. I really again appreciate what y'all are doing I'm convinced that we have schools all across the state. They're doing things just like this Maybe not as we may not know about them So I appreciate senator Sullivan that you shed light on that and I'm thankful that
Jessse Turner
Unverified
57:54
I I hope you continued success. Well, if someone calls us, we're always willing to share with them and to work with them.
I got to know you through Facebook. Did you? I got to start following Pastor Turner on Facebook. Pastor Jesse has called on Facebook and read some of the things he is talking about, what he's talked about here. And I was amazed. And eventually called them and said, hey, I'm headed to Pine Bluff and drove down there and met with them. And I think we previously had had an ed meeting in Pine Bluff focusing on the good things that were happening in Pine Bluff school.
So, you know, there's a lot of information out there. We want to be sure and get out the good information. These folks are doing a great job, and I applaud all of you that are here today. Thank you so much for what you're doing in your school. Members, I see no more questions. I'm assuming, I'll let you close, but assuming they'll be back and they'll be here if you have questions, you want to talk to them, you're certainly welcome
to do so. And Pastor Jesse, you're welcome to close. Okay.
Jessse Turner
Unverified
59:01
Thank you again for allowing us to come and be here.
There's another program that we're doing now where we're working with the kids that's been incarcerated. Even though they have made a mistake, kids who have been incarcerated and coming back, It's a youth diversion program to stop those kids that's on the verge of going to detention. It's a youth diversion program. It's a national program that we're working with right now. It involves different states, and it's in your package that I gave you. And we're getting ready to take two of the best ones to a national returning citizen conference
where they'll get an opportunity to hear others who have been in prison but came out and turned their life around and are now business people, international chefs, and things of that nature. So we want them to see that. Thank you so much. And I see my
mentors are back in the back sitting down.
So if you'd like to talk with them or the folks here at the table, you're welcome to. Saying no for the business, we are adjourned.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Report from Institutions of Higher Education for Annual Certification of Solvency as Required by A.C.A. § 6-62-609 [Exhibit B]
C. Presentation of the Future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education [Exhibits C1-C2]
D. Discussion of the Arkansas Acceleration, Common Sense, Cost, Eligibility, Scholarships, and Standardization (ACCESS) Act: Pine Bluff School District and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff [Exhibits D1-D2]
E. Other Business
F. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — ALC - HIGHER EDUCATION SUBCOMMITTEE, Mar 18, 2026 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit B - Annual Certification of Adequate Funds FY2025-2026 | Exhibit | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit C1 - The Future of AI Presentation | Exhibit | 13 needs OCR | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit C2 - The Future of AI in K-12 and Higher Education | Exhibit | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit D1 - UAPB-PBSD Partnership Initiatives | Exhibit | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit D2 - Pine Bluff UAPB Initiatives | Exhibit | 4 | Official source ↗ |
| Handout 1 | Exhibit | 4 needs OCR | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Dan Sullivan Chair
Unverified
Speaker 6
Matt Carpenter
Unverified
Speaker 22
Johnny Toma
Unverified
Speaker 33
Speaker 34
Speaker 36
Representative Bruce Cozart
Unverified
Speaker 26
Speaker 17
Speaker 51
Speaker 43
Speaker 29
Speaker 58
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Jessse Turner
Unverified
Yolanda Pitts
Unverified
Sonia Watkins
Unverified
James Hill
Unverified
Alexander Watkins
Unverified
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
Speaker 89
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
Speaker 83