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Law To Boost Pilot Programs for Ag Schools

3 min read

Specialized agriculture education in Arkansas will soon not be solely the purview of higher education.

A measure approved in this year’s legislative session will create a pilot program for “agriculture schools” in the state.

State senator and farmer Gary Stubblefield, of Branch, sponsored the legislation. It calls for schools K-12 to “promote college and career readiness for a wide variety of careers in agriculture.”

Though few details of how the schools will operate have been developed, the law calls for a seven-member board of directors, appointed by the governor, to oversee the pilot program. Each school will feature a seven-member advisory board that includes representatives of the local agriculture community, higher education and the state departments of Agriculture, Career Education and Education.

The state Department of Career Education will ultimately be in charge of the program.

Creating a school will involve a mayor, county judge or local school board applying to be part of the program. The school would have to partner with a college or university to expand that institution’s offerings and allow the students to earn college credit while in the school. The school’s programs would focus on the type of agriculture common to the geographic area.

The law mandates that at least one agriculture school for kindergarten through sixth grade operate in the 2015-16 school year and at least one for grades seven through 12 operate in the 2016-17 school year.

Stubblefield said the schools will ultimately result in more college graduates ready for a job in agriculture and said that employers will have jobs waiting on them.

“As a lifelong farmer who witnessed firsthand, while I was an agriculture student at the University of Arkansas in 1969, that there was a shortage of agriculture majors all over the country, I was recruited by a company called Perdue, who at that time was the largest poultry company in the world,” Stubblefield said. “They flew me to their headquarters in Maryland for an interview. They told me the country as a whole needed twice the number of students with degrees in agriculture than colleges were turning out.”

Stubblefield said the program could have far-reaching effects.

“When I first read the bill I thought it was one of those things that are too good to be true, and the odds of passing it were insurmountable,” he said. “However the more I read the bill the more I realized how special and innovative it truly was. This program could change education and agriculture in this state. I don’t know if you believe in the ‘butterfly effect,’ but I believe they may have just set something in motion.”

Sen. John Cooper of Jonesboro, the measure’s co-sponsor, said a framework for how the schools will operate isn’t yet available.

“I do envision that equipment and space will certainly be needed. Direct ownership may not be essential though,” he said. “I do see grants playing a big role and possibly equipment suppliers on a loan or lease basis.”

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