Fox News88%
Gov Sanders reveals 'major breakthrough' on education as red state positions itself as 'blueprint' for nation 88%
By Kiera McDonald0% Andrew Miller0%
6/19/2026, 10:00:02 AM
Topics: Education Reform, State Politics
BS Summary: This article contains 32 faulty reasoning types, including Hasty Generalization, Optimism Bias, and Confirmation Bias, with Post Hoc (False Cause) as the most egregious example at 40.7% saturation with 277 hits. Analysis detected 2,064 faulty-reasoning hits from 680 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 80.7% and a BS Rank of 88% (2,615 of 21,176 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 87.70% of the article peer group.
EXCLUSIVE: As Democrats across the country criticize education programs in red states, Arkansas Republican Gov.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is touting a major achievement in her state she hopes will serve as an education blueprint for all states, regardless of politics, nationwide.
"The thing we're most excited about is the fact that so many Arkansas students are doing better now than they would have been doing pre-LEARNS legislation," Sanders told Fox News Digital on the day her office announced a "major breakthrough" in education following implementation of a 2023 Republican-backed statewide education overhaul, known as the LEARNS Act.
The law also raised the minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, created performance-based teacher bonuses, boosted literacy support, funded school safety initiatives and banned critical race theory and classroom teachings related to critical race theory, gender identity, sexual orientation and sexually explicit materials.
Arkansas public school students are seeing sharp gains on a new statewide exam, with proficiency rates rising more than 7% across all grades and subjects in just three years under the state’s conservative education reforms.
Since 2024, student proficiency has increased by more than 7% and by more than 5% since 2025, according to the governor’s office.
"We want our kids to do well," Sanders said.
"We love the fact that kids in Arkansas are learning, that they're moving up.
The growth and achievement that we're seeing from our kids is exactly what we want to happen."
In 2026, 42.2% of students met proficiency standards, up from 36.9% in 2025.
Mathematics proficiency increased from 36.4% in 2024 to 44.2% in 2026, science proficiency rose from 35.6% to 44.0%, and English language arts proficiency climbed from 33.8% to 39.5%.
Students performing at the lowest levels also fell across all subjects, dropping from an average of 27.3% in 2025 to 23.1% in 2026.
Reading performance among third-graders improved as well, with proficiency rising from 36% in 2024 to 43% in 2026.
Students in kindergarten through second grade, the first to learn under the state's education reforms, exceeded 50% proficiency in nearly every subject and grade level, while maintaining upward momentum.
Sanders said transformational reform is driven by better teaching and a unified focus on student needs, saying "a comprehensive, aligned approach" makes a difference.
"Not any one thing, but it's the collective process of really transforming the way that we approach education," Sanders said.
"Realizing that every single kid can learn when given the right environment, when given the right tools, and letting failure not be an option."
Democrats in recent years, including former Vice President Kamala Harris and prominent teachers' union officials, have targeted red-state education policies, but Sanders told Fox News Digital she hopes the education program sends a message across the country.
"I'm hopeful absolutely that red states will use what we're doing here as a blueprint, but I also hope that blue states will look at the success that you're seeing in places like Arkansas, Mississippi and others and try to follow suit because we want all kids to do well," Sanders said.
"Seeing kids achieve and do better and be successful, that's not a red state or blue state issue.
That's something everybody should care about."
Sanders said the results are "showing what works," adding there is no need to "reinvent the wheel."
"We know that raising the bar, providing those resources and support for our students, for our teachers, for our superintendents makes a difference," Sanders said.
"We've got a recipe here that's working and absolutely hope it not only changes the conversation but frankly changes the system, changes the culture and education."
"The LEARNS Act was a bold, innovative, and comprehensive approach to improve education," Jacob Oliva, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Education, said in a press release.
"It was built on research, urgency, and the desperate need for change.
These scores prove that listening to teachers, administrators, and parents wasn’t just valuable but also essential.
The plan is working.
Arkansas students are reading, learning, and benefitting."
Speakers
2speakers59%attributed speech280writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Selected voice
100%flagged-word coverageSarah Huckabee Sanders
334 attributed words84% of attributed speech87% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.