LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KAIT) – With Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva and a bipartisan group of lawmakers surrounding her, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that Arkansas would build a state-of-the-art facility to provide quality education to blind, deaf, and visually impaired students.
“They deserve a quality education as much as any other student,” Sanders said during her announcement at the state capitol.
She said the Arkansas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Arkansas School for the Deaf, located on West Markham Street in Little Rock, are long overdue for repair.
The governor said crumbling exteriors and leaky, drafty interiors stand in stark contrast with the dedication of the schools’ educators.
She also cited significant health, safety, and security concerns.
“To say I was speechless would be an understatement,” Sanders said of what she witnessed during a tour of the schools.
She said the two schools were “built as a promise” to deaf, blind, and visually impaired Arkansans “that they deserved a quality education just as much as any other student.”
“Sadly, for far too long, our state has failed to keep its word,” Sanders said. “We are changing that.”
She said the state will build a new state-of-the-art facility on the current campus.
Sanders stated a survey of the school community revealed three main priorities: keeping the campus at its current location, providing more resources for deaf and blind students beyond the Little Rock campus, and addressing the critical safety concerns students are seeing now.
She said the “campuses’ historic nature will be protected.”
The governor added there would be further discussions about funding, construction, and more.
“Arkansas is going to keep its promise, and we are going to fix these schools,” Sanders said.
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