An article this week in the Arkansas Times discusses how private schools in the state have raised their tuition rates as the Arkansas voucher program, part of the LEARNS Act of 2023, enters its third year. The article lists all of the private schools in the state and breaks down their tuition over the last three years and ranks them based on how much their tuition has increased from the 2023-24 school year to this school year.The Mountain Home Christian Academy (MHCA) is ranked number four in the state, meaning they have the fourth highest increase in tuition since the inception of the LEARNS Act. The tuition for the 2023-24 school year was $3,780, while this school year, it has jumped to $8,250, which includes school fees, an increase of $4,470.
Doyne Byrd is in his third year as the Administrator at MHCA. He says they started the increase to help pay their teachers better and continued the increase last year to include a number of different fees that were collected outside of tuition.
Listen:
With the voucher system, the state is paying just under $7,000 per student who attends a private school. Byrd says with their current tuition, it makes sure there is a difference for parents of their students compared to students of public school students.
Listen:
Byrd says they didn’t just push the tuition high to get more money from the state, they have worked to add more offerings and better classes to their students in recent years.
Listen:
The MHCA Administrator says the LEARNS Act has been instrumental for their school in allowing them to increase wages for their teachers.
Listen:
He says it was tough at first though.
Listen:
Being a private school, Byrd says it can be hard to attract teachers.
Listen:
Mountain Home Christian Academy’s enrollment this school year in kindergarten through 12th grade is 187 students, up from 172 last year, but they do limit how many students they have in each grade. Byrd says they have a waiting list for second through seventh grades.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI