State briefs

Wording approved for Arkansas term limits proposal for ‘18

LITTLE ROCK — Supporters of stricter term limits for Arkansas elected officials are shifting their focus to 2018 after failing to make the November ballot this year.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge on Friday approved the wording of a proposed constitutional amendment to limit the maximum amount of time lawmakers can serve in the Legislature from 16 years to 10 years and limiting lawmakers to three two-year terms in the House and two four-year terms in the Senate.

Rutledge’s certification clears the way for supporters to begin gathering signatures to try and put the measure on the 2018 ballot. A group behind an identical proposal said earlier this month it was unable to gather the required signatures to put the measure on the November ballot.

Panel backs revamping Arkansas higher education funding

LITTLE ROCK — An Arkansas panel on Friday recommended tying higher education funding to factors such as degree completion, a move that supporters say will help make the case that the state’s colleges and universities need more money.

The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board adopted the framework for a new “outcomes-based” funding plan. Currently, most of the state’s higher education funding formula is tied to student enrollment.

The plan adopted Friday calls for funding to be linked to factors such as number of students completing degrees, how many graduates get a job or another degree, and how long it takes a student to graduate. Lawmakers must approve the framework before the board finalizes the funding formula, which would include details on how the factors would affect funding levels.

“It’s about student success,” state Higher Education Director Brett Powell told the board before it approved the plan. “If you care about students, outcomes-based funding will help us get to the student success we all want.”

Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson last year called for overhauling the higher education funding formula and praised the plan adopted Friday.

“These changes will promote efficiency of operations, encourage on-time completion, and encourage allocation of resources to areas which directly impact student success, such as faculty salaries and academic support services,” Hutchinson said in a statement released by his office. “My priority continues to be increasing the percentage of Arkansans that are career-ready, equipped with degrees and industry-recognized certificates, and this new revolutionary funding model will help us achieve just that.”

The board also called on the Legislature to increase funding for higher education, which has remained flat for the past several years. The state’s colleges and universities received about $733 million in the $5.3 billion state budget that was approved earlier this year. Higher education officials said the new formula, if approved by lawmakers, would be used in the funding recommendations that would go before the Legislature in 2018.

“It is our responsibility to stand up for higher education and say, ‘We’re taking these steps, but we just absolutely must have additional funding,’ for not only the benefit of the state and the institutions, but, most of all, for the students of the state,” Ben Pickard, a member of the board, said.

Powell said that tying the funding to degree completion and other factors will help make the case for that additional funding.

“I really think that if we adopt this model and there’s no new money, then we’ve really not changed anything,” Powell said. “It will be important that the dollars follow the funding model.”

The board also voted to hire Maria Markham to replace Powell as higher education director. Powell, whose last day was Friday, has taken a job as vice president for finance and administration at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia.

Markham, the vice chancellor for academic services at the University of Arkansas system’s Cossatot Community College, will begin work as director Aug. 15.

Little Rock man completes 3,100 mile walk across the US

LITTLE ROCK — A Little Rock man has completed a 148day, 3,100 mile walk across the United States.

Ben Davis arrived Saturday at Pleasure Bay in Boston to finish the journey on foot that began Feb. 27 in Los Angeles.

He was met in Boston by more than two dozen friends, family and Instagram followers and told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that being finished is exhilarating.

Davis said he walked 25 to 30 miles per day while pushing a stroller that held his water and gear. Along the way he crossed the Mojave Desert, the Painted Desert, the Rockies and the Great Plains and said the most difficult part of the trip was long stretches of isolation.

He now plans a book about the journey and says its title will be “Ever Eastward.”

Judge expedites hearing on contested student transfer

LITTLE ROCK — A federal judge will expedite consideration of a motion that he find the Arkansas Board of Education violated a 2014 agreement in the Little Rock school desegregation case.

The Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District alleges the board violated the agreement when it allowed a Jacksonville student to transfer to Cabot.

Judge Price Marshall Jr. said in an order Friday that he will expedite consideration of the motion because school starts in two weeks.

The Jacksonville district says it’s exempt from the state school choice law that allows transfers because it’s party to the settlement agreement. The state law provides an exemption if student transfers put a district in conflict with a federal court desegregation order or plan.

The student’s transfer request had been denied based on the Jacksonville district’s claimed exemption.

Crews begin demolition of Black River Bridge in Pocahontas

POCAHONTAS — Demolition has begun on the Black River Bridge in downtown Pocahontas.

Pocahontas Mayor Kary Story says the project began after state highway officials found that the bridge couldn’t be renovated and needed to be replaced for safety reasons. The Jonesboro

Sun reports that the bridge was deemed a historic structure in 1990.

Crews have removed some of the railing and old metal. After that, they’ll begin knocking down the concrete posts, railing and decks, then demolish the bridge.

Construction on a new bridge is expected to be completed next summer.

Washington County inmate found dead, suicide suspected

FAYETTEVILLE — The Washington County Sheriff’s Office says a county jail inmate died after being found hanging in his jail cell.

The sheriff’s office says 41-year-old Mickey Gene Wolfe Jr. of Wesley was found shortly after 2 a.m. Thursday hanging from a noose that had been made from a towel and tied to a bed. The sheriff’s office says Wolfe was alone in the cell.

Wolfe was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Wolfe was being held on charges of sexual assault.