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A public forum on public education and the Constitution will bring regional leaders and political candidates together with voters Tuesday, Sept. 15, at the Donald W. Reynolds Library Serving Baxter County.
The event, titled “Our Constitution, Our Schools, Our Future: Local Voice & Civic Action,” runs from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at 300 Library Hill Lane in Mountain Home. It is free and open to the public.
Ozarks Free the Future is hosting the forum in partnership with Ozark Forward. Organizers describe the panel as multi-partisan.
“We believe every neighbor deserves a welcoming space to connect directly with local leaders from all political backgrounds,” said Jessica Clanton, founder of Ozarks Free the Future. She said the goal is to inspire Arkansans to protect public schools and strengthen democracy through open dialogue.
Gail Choate, executive director and co-founder of Arkansas Civic Action Network, will moderate. Clanton said Choate will lead a question-and-answer discussion meant to lay out where each candidate stands.
The Baxter County Republican Party will run a voter registration hub at the event to help attendees register or update their registration before the Nov. 3 general election.
The forum is timed to Constitution Day, which falls on Thursday, Sept. 17, and marks the signing of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia in 1787.
Ozarks Free the Future is a nonprofit grassroots network of parents, educators and neighbors in north central Arkansas that works in partnership with the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools. Clanton said the group works to keep parents and educators involved in local school governance, support public school funding and protect student services and special education resources.
Clanton said Arkansas trails the national average and its neighboring states in per-student funding, and she called on state leaders to invest more in classrooms.
“A good education can change lives; a great education can transform generations of lives,” Clanton said. “We can’t lose sight of the importance of public education to Arkansas’s future.”
Ozark Forward is a progressive political action network that says it has grown from 15 Baxter County members in August 2024 to 892 members statewide in August 2026.
For more information, contact Clanton at [email protected].
