Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Huckabee announces plans for education in state

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has some ambitious plans for the state's educational system.

The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled the state's school funding formula doesn't provide for adequate and equitable education, and gave the state until 2004 to come up with a plan to correct the situation.

Huckabee's plan will be discussed extensively during the 84th General Assembly, now underway.

To begin with, Huckabee proposes to reduce the number of school districts in the state from 310 to between 107-116.

He claims the result will be a more centralized administrative and governance network.

"The new structure," he said, "while initially preserving every existing elementary school, will require the closure of many secondary schools, primarily those serving students in grades 9-12 where the state finds the most operational and academic inefficiencies."

Under Huckabee's plan, there would be about 76 school districts where the minimum average daily membership (ADM), which current funding is based on, would be 1,500.

The school closings would be done at the discretion of the Arkansas Board of Education, after the issue is discussed with local superintendents and school board members.

Those districts not closed would become community school units, he said, and would be assigned to one of an estimated 25-20 regional districts. "All of these districts' individual schools that existed on Jan. 1, 2003, and that were serving exclusively students from kindergarten through the eighth grade, will automatically become community schools."

There will be some exceptions to school closings within the regional districts, he said. Some districts will be consolidated by the state Board of Education on the recommendation of the regional district superintendent and in consultation with the regional district's school board.

Secondary community schools could consist of multiple campuses operated under an approved cooperative arrangement between or among different regional districts, or unified districts and community schools.

The theory behind this is to provide the students with more access to distance learning, along with the facilities and personnel from community colleges, technical colleges and four year universities.

Athletics and extracurricular activities would be referred to the Arkansas Activities Association.

The end result of the overall program would mean, in effect, the end of local control of schools.

The new districts would be governed by an elected school board with a superintendent in charge.

Superintendents would have the authority to hire and fire principals, and there would be one central office staff for each district. Only the Arkansas Department of Education would have the authority to hire or fire a superintendent. The ADE, Huckabee said, would consider the recommendation of the local school board.

A parent/business advisory board would be created for each community school and be administered by a principal, who would have the authority to hire and fire teachers and support staff.

The advisory board's role would be to ensure education dollars reflect the priorities of the state and, where appropriate, he said, the concerns of parents, business leaders and other local taxpayers.

Parents would be informed as to the curriculum, the academic assessments used to measure student progress and the proficiency level of the students as well.

In theory, the advisory council would also be involved in the annual performance evaluation of the principal, and could recommend the hiring and firing of principals to the superintendent. However, any action would solely be up to the superintendent.

Those students who have problems in regular classes would be placed in an alternative learning environment provided by the districts.

Before any of this is done, Huckabee said, the ADE must first be reorganized. A task force of key department staff, school district representatives and other stakeholders will take a look at the department's operations and make recommendations on how to improve the ADE.

The 15 educational cooperatives will be disbanded, and reinstated into 25-30 education service centers functioning as units of the ADE.

The mission of these centers will be to help the ADE provide effective instructional and non-instructional support to the local districts.

They will also house the administrative offices for the regional districts, including the office of superintendent.

Huckabee admitted this proposal is not a final product. It will, however, be discussed by the education committee of the Arkansas Legislature, and, in all probability, by the entire general assembly.

Huckabee's proposal contained no numbers to show how money would be saved, or education improved.

Instead, it shows how he wants to eliminate local authority over school districts, with the state taking control of the educational process.

"Things are never going to be like they were in the past," he said. "We must make historic changes in our system of public education, and we must make those changes during this legislative session.

"In essence, local control of public schools was eliminated when the Supreme Court issued its ruling in November."

Huckabee said he didn't think most Arkansans grasp the fundamental changes the state is facing with education, as the state will, for the first time, be held directly responsible for "all aspects" of children's education.

He said schools will be forced to merge, and those districts currently achieving academic success with a small student body are encouraged to apply for charter status.