MATTHEW MOORE: Joining us on this Tuesday, as he does nearly every other Tuesday, is Andrew DeMillo. He's the editor in chief of the Arkansas Advocate. Andrew, hello. How are you today?
DEMILLO: I'm doing well and staying indoors. How about you?
MOORE: I'm doing both of those things as well. Absolutely. We're going to start today by talking about some recent reporting that the Arkansas Advocate did, talking about the Education Freedom Accounts, the school voucher program that has been instituted here in Arkansas, and looking at how those voucher amount dollars compare to tuition rates from schools who are accepting those vouchers. One of the arguments that has been made is that these vouchers will provide access to schools for people who otherwise wouldn't have access to these private educations. The data that your team has looked at here tells a slightly different story, it seems.
DEMILLO: Yeah. That's correct. This is excellent reporting. Our deputy editor, Antoinette Grajeda, does this every year, where she goes through hundreds of applications that come in from these private schools and looks at the changes in private school tuition under these schools that participate in the voucher program. And her latest reporting just recently showed that the average private school tuition among applicants is about $2,600 more than what the state funding for the voucher provides. This is a gap that we've seen for the past few years on this. And it really kind of highlights, like you said, kind of concern that we hear from some of the critics of vouchers that this really still leaves a gap for people who can't afford private school tuition to begin with.
One of the things that she found in her reporting looked at different ways that schools are trying to fill the gap. There are schools that are doing scholarships or doing financial aid or other methods to really try to fill the gap. And one of the schools that she profiled was the small school in Paragould, where even closing that gap, leaving $20 to $25 or so that they'd have to pay out of pocket, even for some families, even that was a challenge, especially when you get into rural areas. So this is really an interesting look at just kind of seeing what the on-the-ground look of the vouchers is and the impact that this is having on families around the state.
MOORE: This past school year, 2025-26, was the first year that all Arkansans were eligible to partake in this. Is there any indication that this gap is going to get smaller, or is it going to get wider?
DEMILLO: It's definitely not getting smaller. I think this is a concern that you're seeing around here. But also, the schools are also dealing with the cost of education, rising costs, inflation as well too. So they're having to face that reality as well. The cost of education is not going to go down. That's kind of one of the issues that we're looking at with it. You've got 57,000 students participating in the program right now. We keep seeing growth in the funding for it, as we saw with the legislative session this past year. So I would be surprised if we saw that gap narrowing in any way. I think you may see schools try to find more ways to get private support, philanthropy, different ways to really address this, because I think they understand the optics of this and understand the issues that come up with this.
MOORE: Did the Department of Education have any comment or any thoughts on this sort of data that you're seeing here, that there's this very meaningful gap between what the vouchers cover and what the average cost of tuition is?
DEMILLO: Well, we mainly just talked with schools around the state, kind of seeing what their impact on the ground is. Supporters of vouchers still point out that this is providing opportunity to families around the state that they didn't have before. The counterargument that you hear from critics of vouchers is a lot of the families that are participating in the voucher program were already in the private school system. So it's not like it's opening up a lot more families into it, as much as it may be helping families that were already paying out of pocket for it to begin with. And so I think that's one of the concerns that's going to have to be addressed going forward.
MOORE: Finally here, your most recent column talks about Medicaid work requirements here in the state of Arkansas and how that may play a role in the very fragile health care system that we have here in Arkansas as well. At the same time that we're seeing work requirements being added to Medicaid, we're also seeing hospitals and medical facilities across the state, rural, urban and otherwise, really struggling.
DEMILLO: Yeah, that's correct. The point I make in this is, eight years ago, Arkansas didn't really have the real-world data that it has now about Medicaid work requirements. We now have seen what happened the first time Arkansas tried work requirements before it was struck down by federal courts. And what we saw was that it did not have the impact of increasing employment that was promised, and actually corresponded with an increase in uninsured people in the state. And that was when 18,000 people lost coverage because of these requirements.
What's happening this time around because of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the requirements that are going to go into effect next year, they're estimating as many as 42,000 people to lose coverage this time around. So the question isn't going to be what's going to happen with work requirements. It's going to be what happens when you try the same thing, but in a much more precarious environment right now. We're in a situation now where health care is in a very fragile condition, as you mentioned. We've seen hospitals either closing or scaling back care. We've seen health deserts around the state, especially when it comes to labor and delivery. And it's kind of the question of what happens when you reintroduce this into this environment right now.
The people who are going to lose coverage, they're not going to stop needing care. The risk now is going to be what happens when they do seek care. Are we going to see a significant increase in uncompensated care costs for hospitals, especially in rural parts of the state? That can end up having a ripple effect. And there are a lot of big questions that are hovering right now over this second try at this.
MOORE: I want to end on a high note here. We're just about the halfway point of the year. Any books, anything you've recently read that really kind of sticks out to you that you want to share with listeners?
DEMILLO: Yeah. I celebrated the Fourth of July in the nerdiest way possible by reading books about the Declaration of Independence and American Revolution. And there were a few books that really stuck out to me. There was a great collection of essays from the National Constitution Center that was about the Declaration of Independence and about just kind of the values of the nation's founding. And it had a great annotated version of the Declaration of Independence that I would really recommend anyone, even though we're well past the holidays, still pick it up and read. And there was another book by an author named Thomas Ricks called "First Principles" that really looked at the influence that ancient Greeks, ancient Romans had on the philosophy that led to the Declaration of Independence and really led to the revolutionary spirit that we saw. And it's not a book about battles. It's very much an intellectual book, but it's still very exciting. And I would recommend folks, if they want to still kind of keep up that 250 spirit, pick those up.
MOORE: I love it. Andrew DeMillo is the editor in chief at the Arkansas Advocate. You can read all of his team's work at ArkansasAdvocate.com. Andrew, thank you as always.
DEMILLO: Thank you.
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