Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Gov. Huckabee allows opposed bill into law

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is allowing a bill he opposes to become law without his signature.

According to a letter from Huckabee to members of the Arkansas House and Senate, he decided to allow HB 1109 to become law, though his first inclination was to veto it. HB 1109 is better known as the Public Education Reorganization Act.

Huckabee wrote the bill doesn't represent "a serious, systematic approach to restructuring public school districts in order to achieve efficiency in the expenditure of taxpayer dollars."

He called it a "last ditch effort to pass symbolic legislation that implies the controversial issue of consolidation has been addressed."

Huckabee also said the bill doesn't address the problem of funding in a proper manner and the funding formula is based on the assumption a school  not a district  has at least 500 students. The letter states in 1948 voters approved an enrollment threshold of 350 students for grades 1-12, adding this was a time when most roads in the state were unpaved, few had telephones and the educational demands of the workplace weren't what they are in the 21st century.

According to Huckabee, the new law will mean the state is again paying for inefficiency and keeping high administrative salaries at the expense of classroom teachers.

HB 1109 requires by Feb. 1, 2004 and each Feb. 1 thereafter, the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) to publish a consolidation list including districts with fewer than 350 students, according to the district's average daily membership in each of the two school years immediately preceding the current academic year.

Any district on the ADE's list may voluntarily agree to administratively consolidate with or be annexed into another district or districts. This translates into the students remaining where they are with the administration being changed.

Any district voluntarily undergoing the administrative consolidation would have to notify the Arkansas State Board of Education (ASBE) by July 1 after the list is published.

Schools undergoing administrative consolidation and designated as being in academic or fiscal distress can't be academically or fiscally sanctioned for three years under the law.

There are some exceptions to this, though. One is if the district isn't meeting minimum teacher salaries, or the district fails to comply with the Standards of Accreditation of Arkansas Public Schools.

The law also allows non-contiguous schools to consolidate if the faculty and physical plant are within the same county and the state board approves the move.

Under section 6-13-1604, the administrative consolidation assistance fund, the state "shall pay" these funds to districts administratively consolidated or annexed by the ASBE, or has an average daily attendance of at least 350 and no more than 500 for each of the prior two school years, or if voluntary petitions are approved by the state board of education.

According to HB 1109, the assistance funds will be $800 multiplied by the consolidated ADM and $700 times the consolidated national lunch student total. These funds, as written in the bill, can be used for any purpose, though the state can require the monies to be spent on construction or improvement of facilities.

Additionally, the bill requires those districts being consolidated to establish an interim school board until the next scheduled school election. This board will be made up of members from the boards of the affected districts.

Huckabee, in his letter, wrote a 500 student high school means the senior class will have about 120 students, and trying to make the funding formula fit will subject the state to another lawsuit for failing to give adequate, equitable funding to those unconsolidated districts.

"That's the very essence of the Lake View lawsuit," he wrote. "I would be embarrassed to affix my name to something the courts have already soundly rejected.

"If the Legislature doesn't want to responsibly confront the need for an efficient public education system so we can maximize the tax dollars paid by our overtaxed citizens, then I feel you need to explain this to your constituents."

Huckabee said he isn't satisfied with the approach taken by the Legislature and expressed doubts the majority of Arkansans would like the end results either.

He said he didn't want to be a "mere obstructionist" and will allow this bill to become an unsigned law.

Huckabee closed the letter saying, "Perhaps this will give the people of Arkansas an opportunity to compare this approach with other plans that might be available for their decision in November. In addition, allowing this bill to become law likely will give us the opportunity to discover whether this approach is acceptable to the Arkansas Supreme Court."

Herein remains the essential question to the problem  Will the ASC decree this new law as meeting the requirements of the Lake View case and provide students in Arkansas schools with an adequate and efficient education or not? Time will tell.