Delivery date : Wednesday, October 24, 2007 6:27:04 pm
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Publication: Arkansas Democrat-GazetteNW
Page(s): 12
Section: Northwest Arkansas
Original Date: 02/04/2003

EDITORIALS
An honest answer
It’s no magic act, either

THE FIRST THING we thought when we read Governor Huckabee’s latest statement-after we picked our jaws off the floor-was: "You go, boy."

We tend to like the governor these days, for several reasons. It’s his honesty that’s endearing, especially after some of the folks who’ve occupied his chair over the years.

When asked if he would get out Among The People to promote his plan for improving education (which would, shhh, involve consolidation) he said-more or less-Hell, no.

"I’m not going to be bashful about saying it," the Huck explained. "I want to create venues where we can have legitimate, honest discourse about the issues where we can answer questions. I’m not looking for ways to create venues of screaming matches where we aren’t really having adult conversation about what’s good for children, where you just have photo opportunities for people to vent anger without having a rational discussion. It’s not healthy. It’s not healthy for children."

Ta-da! That’s how a politician can be honest. The story didn’t say if the Huck does any other magic tricks.

Not only was it an honest answer, it was accurate, and politically deft. For now, anyway. If Governor Huckabee took to the road in the next week to promote his plan, he would change few if any minds on the subject. And yes, the newspapers and teevee stations would focus-literally-on the more agitated parts of the discussion, which means those who are jumping up and down, and wagging fingers in the chief executive’s face. ("You can’t merge my school to another district! My daddy and his daddy before him played football here!") What would that accomplish? As the governor said, the battle now is with the Ledge, and the Ledge is in Little Rock these days. But if the Guv thinks he’s guaranteed civility by limiting his debate to the Ledge, he may not have anticipated some of the antics he’ll encounter from legislators who aren’t so much interested in better schools, as in a lot more money for the poor ones they want to keep unconsolidated.

Some may think the Guv uppity for declining to be shouted at. Or, as they say these days, Out Of Touch. He isn’t. He’s just interested in keeping the conversation civil. We hope he’ll succeed. That’ll be something else to thank him for, besides better schools.

Where the Huck blew it, where he played right into his critics’ hands, is when he made his plan to sell education reform through some kind of cyber-campaign. We suppose Mike Huckabee can’t help himself. That techno-geek side of him that brought the state AASIS, the Computer That Ate Arkansas, just had to call a press conference to introduce his new Streaming Video. Which, for some of us luddites, is about as easy to figure out as the pre-Huckabee process for getting car tags. (Note to the Guv: Okay, so we downloaded Windows Media Player. Now what?)

If the governor wants to go online, fine. Just don’t make it the Main Source For Information-or trumpet it as such. There are better ways to skin your critics.

What the Guv should do is what he’s been doing-and what he does best. He should hit the radio call-in shows, make the television rounds, use AETN as his own personal network, and keep answering any and every question from a nosy press.

Mike Huckabee was a preacher, radio man, and communicator-in-general before he lowered himself to politics. Well, now he’s got some communicatin’ and preachin’ to do about this strange, new education plan. And nobody can do it like Mike.

Did you see how the polls spiked on the Guv’s education plan when folks were given a detailed explanation? When Arkies get the whole story, we can be wonderfully reasonable. It’s when we get bombarded with half-truths and rumors and scare tactics that some of us get a little cranky.

The night of his State of the State, the governor held a conference call with columnists and editorial writers from Arkansas’ newspapers. (He was to hold another conference call with the press last night.) Something he said still resonates: "I’ve got to spend a lot of time taking heat. Some people need to vent."

So just because Mike Huckabee may not want to get into an unproductive screaming match-and who can blame him?-that doesn’t mean he can’t see that fears are being stirred in small school districts. And he’s still figuring out the best way to talk calmly to some mighty excited folks.

There may come a time when this governor will have to get out of cyberspace, off the airwaves, and engage in mind-to-mind combat in places like Union, Ark. This small, wonderful state is still a place where retail campaigning works-even in this wired, wired world. Because, while the governor’s plan may demand legislative approval, it can be sold to a dubious public only by Michael Dale Huckabee. And we can’t think of a better salesman.

This article was published on page 12 of the Tuesday, February 04, 2003 edition in the Northwest Arkansas section.

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Delivery date : Wednesday, October 24, 2007 6:31:30 pm
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Your query : huckabee roads
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Publication: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Page(s): A10
Section: A10
Original Date: 05/19/2001

Huckabee: Road panel is listening to motorists
MICHAEL R. WICKLINE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Gov. Mike Huckabee told the primary backers of a proposal to strip him of his authority to appoint highway commissioners Thursday that the commissioners know they must be customer-oriented.

Arkansas Trucking Association officials were unsuccessful in their campaign to persuade this year's General Assembly to refer to voters a proposed constitutional amendment to allow for the election of highway commissioners.

"The commission more than ever before understands they are going to have to be more customer-oriented with the general public, with the drivers, whether they are driving 18-wheelers or four-wheelers," Huckabee told about 200 people at a luncheon at the association's annual conference at the Doubletree Hotel in Little Rock.

"I think one of the things we are seeing is a much more responsive Highway [and Transportation] Department and Highway Commission, and I am grateful for that," the governor said.

Trucking association officials are considering either starting a petition drive to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the November 2002 ballot that would allow voters to elect commissioners or waiting until 2003 to allow the General Assembly to reconsider a similar measure.

Huckabee, a Republican, said he encouraged the commission to invite the Arkansas Trucking Association's board of directors to meet with commissioners to discuss the truckers' concerns, and he wants to be part of the process. On Wednesday the association's board accepted the invitation for its first meeting with the commission.

The commission is making a genuine effort to do better for the state and to find common ground for the sake of good roads, Huckabee said.

He said he believes association President Lane Kidd of Little Rock is going to see movement on the part of all parties.

"This industry will no longer be demonized by anybody and instead will be appreciated as an important part of our economy, and frankly the ones who pay the freight to build most of the highways we are working on," Huckabee said. "So let's give that a chance, and I think you are going to find that very, very helpful."

Tim Hill of Russellville, outgoing chairman of the association's board of directors, said association officials were successful in demonstrating that the state's citizens will hold the commissioners accountable for their actions.

He said he hopes association officials and the commissioners can work out their differences.

Huckabee said the trucking industry will need "Job-like patience'' on the interstate highways during the next few years. "I wish I could tell you that it is not going to be that bad," he said.

"It is going to be tough on every motorist in the state. The difference is that rather than dodging orange barrels just for the sake of dodging them, we'll actually be doing something that in about three-and-a-half years will result in an interstate that we won't have to apologize for and that won't beat the daylights out of the trucks that you spend so much money to buy in the first place."

Huckabee said he hopes the association's members help state officials make sure everybody understands that these are not pleasant times to drive through highway construction zones.

By a four-to-one ratio in June 1999, Arkansas voters approved a plan to issue $575 million in taxpayer-financed bonds for repairs to 372 miles of interstate roads.

The 1999 Legislature and Huckabee raised the diesel tax by 4 cents per gallon and earmarked part of that revenue to finance the bonds.

Slug Line: hyhuckfr 10A CITY
This article was published on page A10 of the Saturday, May 19, 2001 edition in the A10 section

_________________
Leave no question in anyone's mind as to where you stand. --L. Aldin Porter

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Delivery date : Wednesday, October 24, 2007 6:33:48 pm
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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.org
I'm done with winter now.

Thanks, Bekel, for doing this research. I'd much rather read these in-depth articles than the sound bytes the ntl. MSM gives us about the Governor's tenure.

And what a stand-up guy! I'm proud to be a Huck Supporter!