Bill to dissolve PBS, state library boards faces Ark. Senate vote Monday

UPDATE: The bill passed the Arkansas State Senate.

Little Rock, AR — (BrooklandNews.com) — Feb. 19, 2025 – A bill that would abolish the boards that govern public broadcasting services and the state library board to face the Arkansas State Senate on Monday.

Senate Bill 184, sponsored by Dan Sullivan (R-Jonesboro), would dismantle the Arkansas Educational Television Commission and the State Library Board and place them under the direction of the Arkansas Department of Education. 

The bill went in front of the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee on Feb. 13, 2025.

“These boards and commissions meet once a quarter. They have a set agenda, they meet for about an hour, hour and a half or so, and rarely did they come up with things that are consequential,” Sullivan said in a recent committee hearing.

State Sen. Clarke Tucker (D-Little Rock) pushed back in the hearing and suggested that the boards of each are important. Tucker questioned if it would be too much for the Arkansas Department of Education to manage.

To which Sullivan replied, “I think they function better under the Department of Education and are more aligned with what the goals and missions of the legislative and executive branches.”

Courtney Pledger, Director of Arkansas PBS, and Jason Kunau, Chief Financial Officer spoke during the hearing citing concerns about the bill.

“The bill threatens these essential services by transferring us to a department that by nature, must have and does have other priorities… It weakens resources for public safety and civic engagement. We’re a lot more than television,” Pledger said.

Kunau cited concerns about licensing: “Each one of the 10 transmitters are licensed individually and each of those call signs would have to be amended. Each one of those applications would have to be reprocessed so there would be a period of time that would be necessary to process all of that.”

The bill states, “The orders, rules, directives, registration, licensing, and standards of the Arkansas Educational Television Commission shall continue to be in effect until they are amended or repealed by the Department of Education.”

Both the Arkansas Educational Television Commission and the State Library Board work closely with the state education department but have independent functions.

It is unclear whether the bill will pass or fail in the Senate on Tuesday. Sullivan proposed a similar bill in the 2024 Arkansas Fiscal Legislative Session, but it failed to get out of committee.