Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed former state representatives Ken Bragg to the Arkansas State Board of Education, the governor announced Thursday during a media event at the Capitol.
Bragg, a Republican from Sheridan, served in the Legislature for 10 years. He most recently worked in Sanders’ office helping to draft her signature education reform, the LEARNS Act.
"He worked on the LEARNS Act when it was still in its infancy and has helped us shepherd it through this legislative session," Sanders said. "He knows the law like the back of his hand because he helped write a lot of it."
The LEARNS Act has been partially on hold since Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herbert Wright ruled June 30 lawmakers failed to properly approve the law’s emergency clause, a parliamentary procedure to make bills take immediate effect.
Despite Wright’s ruling, both Sanders and Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin have maintained the state can proceed with implementing the LEARNS Act, arguing that the circuit court’s ruling was merely a declaratory judgement that “does not order the Department of Education to stop the important work of ensuring that LEARNS is fully implemented by the start of the new school year,” the attorney general said in a July 5 statement.