Opinion

Americans United for Life ranks Arkansas as the Number 1 pro-life state in the nation, and today I would like to talk about a few of the organizations and people that give meaning to that designation. Arkansas is blessed with thousands of people who devote their lives to promoting and protecting life.

Little Rock – When it meets in special session the legislature will consider a $50 million grant program for school safety measures. The governor proposed making grants available for schools that need financial help to implement recommendations made recently by the Arkansas School Safety Commission.

High prices at the pump, increasing costs at the grocery store and excessive monthly energy bills are all devastating for the hardworking Arkansans trying to make ends meet. For at least one northeast Arkansas resident, rising expenses made it too difficult to continue running his contracting business, so he closed the doors.

Arkansas House and Senate Democrats released a plan today to raise teacher salaries by $4,000 and raise the minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $42,000. The Raising Arkansas’s Investment in Schools and Educators (RAISE) Act would use $600 million from the estimated $1.6 billion surplus to create a fund that will allow the raises to be indefinitely sustainable based on current projections. Democrats urged Governor Asa Hutchinson to include their proposed legislation in the August special session so that teachers can get a raise now.