Arkansas AFL-CIO Endorses Scholarship Lottery Amendment

Feb 13, 2008 -- LITTLE ROCK (February 13, 2008) -- The Arkansas AFL-CIO on Wednesday announced its support for the HOPE for Arkansas Scholarship Lottery Amendment.

“We’re proud to do this on behalf of Arkansas’s workers,” Alan B. Hughes, the labor organization's president, said during a morning news conference with Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter at the state Capitol.

Arkansas families who need financial help to send their children to college would benefit from lottery-funded scholarships, Hughes said, as would workers who have been laid off but want to go back to school and work toward getting their families back on their feet.

In welcoming the endorsement, Halter told reporters gathered in the Old Supreme Court Room: “I just can’t tell how you pleased that I am that this, the largest representative of Arkansas working men and women, representing a diverse background of folks from all the over the state of Arkansas, have taken this forward-looking step.

"The AFL-CIO has expressed to me that they believe that by providing educational opportunities to all of Arkansas’s future generations and our current generation, that that’s one of the most important steps that we can take to advance our economic future in the state.”

The HOPE for Arkansas Committee is working to gather signatures on petitions aimed at qualify the Scholarship Lottery Amendment for the November 8, 2008, General Election. In endorsing the constitutional amendment, the AFL-CIO also said its members would help with the petition drive.

Source: Arkansas Governor

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