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Publication: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Page(s): 1 and 9
Section: Front Section
Original Date: 08/15/2003
New school plan rivals Huckabee’s
Consolidation foes offer ‘self-reform’
BY MICHAEL ROWETT ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
A group opposed to school consolidation announced an education plan Thursday that emphasizes "community-supported self-reform" over state-mandated improvements and would strip the governor of much of his authority over the state Board of Education.
The plan was released by Save Our Schools, which describes itself as a coalition of parents, teachers and administrators in 200 "small and rural" school districts.
Lavina Grandon of Everton, lead organizer of Save Our Schools and a teacher in the 900-student Valley Springs School District in Boone County, said she compiled and draft- ed the plan after a month of input from legislators, parents and school officials.
The plan doesn’t specify how long districts would be given to meet as-yet-unspecified standards. "I wouldn’t say ‘as long as necessary,’ but I wouldn’t put a time limit on it," Grandon said.
She said she’s confident the plan will satisfy the state Supreme Court, which ruled last Nov. 21 that the school funding system is unconstitutionally inadequate and inequitable.
"I think as long as every child were guaranteed equal opportunity at a good education, then it would meet the Supreme Court mandate," she said.
The plan could be introduced as legislation in a special legislative session this fall if Gov. Mike Huckabee calls one, or referred to voters in the November 2004 election as a petition initiative if Huckabee doesn’t call a session, Grandon said.
She described it as a "broad outline" with "a lot of details to be added."
The plan was announced just two days before two other groups, Arkansans for Educational Excellence and the Citizens First Congress, close out a series of regional meetings with a session in Pine Bluff to draft a plan for legislative action. Grandon said she would attend the Pine Bluff meeting.
A news release for the Save Our Schools plan opened: "As Arkansas’ students and teachers head back to the classroom, many in small school districts wonder if it will be their last year in their home community. If Gov. Mike Huckabee’s consolidation plan goes through, it will be. If the anti-consolidation group Save Our Schools have their way, it won’t."
"Consolidation, annexation or dissolution of a district should be the solution of last resort, employed only after all remedial measures fail" the plan said in boldface type.
Of the 308 school districts in Arkansas, 232 with enrollments of fewer than 1,500 students face potential consolidation under Huckabee’s school plan, which stresses efficiency in the delivery of a broad curriculum. Details of Huckabee’s academic and efficiency requirements have not been determined.
Huckabee was on the road touting his plan Thursday and hadn’t seen the Save Our Schools plan, Huckabee spokesman Jim Harris said.
In recent weeks Huckabee has said he wouldn’t call a special session without a consensus on substantive education reform. He also has said he’s placing equal emphasis on putting his plan before voters as a ballot issue in November 2004.
IDEAS AT ODDS
Huckabee has singled out two things that would prompt him not to call a session:
A "coup d’etat" to revoke his authority to appoint all Board of Education members and dismiss the Department of Education director.
The Save Our Schools plan would either have the board members elected by voters or give the Legislature authority to appoint some of them. It also would make the director serve at the board’s pleasure.
Any move to "gut" Act 1467 of 2003, which gives the department increased power to take over districts that are in academic or fiscal distress.
The Save Our Schools plan criticizes the department’s supervision of distressed schools as "heavy-handed and counter-productive." Act 1467 unfairly grants "unlimited power" to the board and department, Grandon said.
"I might ask for parts of it to be repealed," Grandon said.
State Sen. Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, chairman of the Senate Education Committee and a supporter of Huckabee’s plan, commended Grandon for offering a proposal.
Argue said he hadn’t had a chance to review the plan in detail but noticed it includes things he supports, such as using normreferenced testing, which enables a comparison of student performance with a a national sample of students.
However, he said he didn’t see any consideration of efficiently spending education dollars or of efficient distribution of teachers throughout the education system.
The senator said he’s skeptical that a plan that emphasizes local decision-making would pass legal muster.
"It just doesn’t meet the test of the Lake View decision," Argue said. "Lake Viewclearly says that it’s a state obligation under the [Arkansas] Constitution, not a local obligation. The state has the duty to provide these resources, and it has been inappropriate, at least since the Dupree decision in 1983, to delegate that to local school boards."
The court has issued two major school funding decisions in the past two decades that have found the state’s public school funding system unconstitutional.
In Dupree v. Alma, the court dealt with the equality of state funding among districts.
Last November, in a suit brought in 1992 by the Lake View School District, the court found the system unconstitutional and gave the state until Jan. 1, 2004, to decide how to provide equal, adequate education to all 450,000 students.
Grandon said she expects that Save Our Schools’ plan would establish a "specific review process" for districts and require "adequate yearly progress in their self-reform plan."
A reconstituted department would likely decide whether districts were making such progress, Grandon said.
The plan describes the department’s current approach as "punitive" when it should focus on "meaningful remedial measures that rely as much as possible on community-supported self-reform."
The governor has said it’s not fair to ask Arkansans to pay a tax increase of the size necessary to raise school standards of 308 districts.
Grandon said she doesn’t buy arguments that fewer districts would be more efficient.
"The smaller districts are currently meeting many of the curriculum requirements in many cost-efficient ways, such as distance learning and sharing teachers," she said.
COSTS OF REFORM
The public school system costs $1.7 billion a year from the state and $1 billion from local property taxes. A legislative committee has recommended spending an additional $709 million, a 37 percent increase in the state’s share. A tax increase of that magnitude would be Arkansas’ largest ever.
This doesn’t include upgrading public school facilities, a component of the court decision. Grandon said she doesn’t know how much the Save Our Schools plan would cost but thinks it would be less than Huckabee’s, which doesn’t have a cost figure.
Huckabee’s plan wouldn’t consolidate schools that teach kindergarten through eighth grades. It also calls for the high schools in the 76 districts that have 1,500 or more students to remain intact.
The other 232 districts could voluntarily consolidate with other districts or survive by proving that they can meet increased efficiency standards and course requirements.
If they can’t do those things, Huckabee would require the state board to take action, which could include consolidation. Smallschool interests have said they should be judged only on their schools’ abilities to meet standards and offer courses.
Some, however, have warned against setting standards too high or requiring so much efficiency that small districts can’t survive.
Argue said it’s clear that the state can’t implement all reforms by Jan. 1 but a plan needs to indicate when the changes would be implemented.
"I think if we would really take a great step forward, I’ve got to have confidence that the court would recognize it as such," Argue said.
This article was published on page 1 and 9 of the Friday, August 15, 2003 edition in the Front Section
_________________ Leave no question in anyone's mind as to where you stand. --L. Aldin Porter Put your John Hancock on the Special Forces list! http://www.save08.org/Let the Nation know that you are not going to allow 'Business as Usual' to continue in government--you will vote! Then go and find two more like-minded people to sign up as well. http://www.ragbrai.orgI'm done with winter now.
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