The number of Arkansas students seeking vouchers for the 2025-26 school year has exceeded 50,000, and the Arkansas Department of Education is still committed to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ plan to fund every applicant.

The application window was set to close Friday. Friday afternoon, an education department website said 50,781 students had applied for vouchers, officially known as “Education Freedom Accounts.” Each voucher will cost the state at least $6,994 per student in the 2025-26 school year. If all those applicants are approved and the students participate in the program all year, it would cost the state about $355 million.

That’s far more than the $277 million the state has set aside so far. There’s no ceiling on applications, and “there are plans to fund every approved applicati

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