Educators Learn About Paid College, Tech Training In The Arkansas Guard

Brig. Gen. Michael Henderson, director of joint staff, Arkansas National Guard, met with key leaders from the Arkansas Department of Education and the Arkansas Division of Higher Education at Camp Robinson, June 25, 2026.

The Arkansas National Guard conducts regular orientation meetings with strategic partners around the state to ensure the opportunities that the National Guard offers are known to educators, local influencers, and community leaders.

“It's important to engage with the Department of Education because … we have common goals,” said Lt. Col. Eric Scarbrough, recruiting and retention battalion commander, Arkansas National Guard. “We want to see Arkansans be better educated, have better jobs, grow the economy, have a better quality of life here in the state.”

Henderson briefed the educators on the resources the Arkansas National Guard can provide the state during natural disasters and rescue operations, and how those resources benefit the economic security of Arkansas.

The educators were given a tour of the Arkansas Army Aviation Support Facility where they were shown the aircraft the Arkansas National Guard uses to support local authorities around the state, and they met with the aircraft mechanics, crew chiefs, and pilots that use the aircraft everyday.

The tour is meant to showcase in real time the future their students could have in the Arkansas National Guard.

“There's a lot of opportunities for our students …,” said Sunni Teale, operations manager for the division of career and technical education. Teale sees the opportunities in the National Guard as a means to break the cycles of poverty and poor education around the state. “A lot of times, as a young person, you don't see that way out.

“And so, I see value in our Arkansas National Guard being able to provide those opportunities to say, hey, you get to choose. So whether it's enlisting, enrolling or employing somewhere, taking control of your own life and saying, I know who I am and what I want to do, and I have talents that I've been given. What better place than to serve your own state than with fellow Arkansans who truly know what it means to be an Arkansan.”

Teale is referring to Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ initiative, the three E’s initiative, enlist, employ, enroll every high school student.

“We are, an accelerator in that,” said Scarbrough, explaining that the Arkansas National Guard offers paid tuition for an enlistment that keeps you in the state of Arkansas, and provides you with the training and certificates needed for employment in the civilian market.

“How do we better prepare students to, be ready to enlist, employ, or enroll? We've been working with the Department of Education to further develop this enlistment pathway, so that students can understand where they are, what the opportunities there are, and how they can take advantage of those opportunities.”

As Scarbrough explained, a student can enlist in the Arkansas National Guard, be employed by the Guard, the Guard will pay for their college, all while living at home.

The educators were also given an open discussion on the in-state paid college tuition program, as well as the variety of technical and trade skills taught by the military that are equivalent to civilian careers.

All Arkansas National Guardsmen have the option to attend a state college or trade school with their tuition and books paid for by the state.

“We have enrollment in all 75 counties, right?” said Teale about the connection between students and the Guardsmen who live and work in those communities. “And so there's this opportunity to build connections and strengthen them from the local level to the state level.

“Like, where else do we see opportunities like that … starting with the ones who we know, love and trust that are right there in our own communities and to grow that on a larger scale to our whole state.”

(U.S. Army National Guard story by 1st Sgt. Jim Heuston)