Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Schools Get Government Boost; Gambling To Hit Ballots

MIKE ROSS

STATE SENATOR, DISTRICT 36

The federal government has provided $11.6 million for Arkansas schools to hire more teachers in elementary grade levels.

State standards now limit first grade to third grade class sizes to an average of 23 pupils per teacher, and no particular class may have more than 25 students per teacher.

Some districts will not receive enough money to hire additional teachers. For example, one small rural district will get only $2,251. However, the state Department of Education has obtained waivers from the federal government that allows districts receiving less than $10,000 to use the money for training of existing staff.

Schools may also use the money to hire kindergarten teachers. The Little Rock School District proposes to hire 10 new teachers, who will be trained to work with students who do not speak English as a primary language.

School districts have to plan carefully when budgeting the federal funds, because there is no guarantee that the funding will continue. Therefore, some newly hired teachers are being told that they could lose their jobs if federal funding is cut off after the coming school year.

The availability of the funds was announced by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley. The national program to reduce elementary class size was supported strongly by the president. The goal of educators is to reduce class size in low grade levels to an average of 18 students per teacher.

The federal funding complements state efforts to improve public education in grades one through four, known as the Smart Start program.

Smart Start is a state effort to bring all students to grade level in the first to the fourth grades. Students in those grades are tested in reading and mathematics, and schools are rewarded if their pupils reach or exceed standards.

The state Department of Education provides training, technical support and help with curricula and instruction. In May the state Board of Education approved the hiring of an additional 12 specialists in math and reading to help elementary schools boost student achievement in those areas.

The state allocated $8.6 million in Smart Start funding, allowing the state to increase the number of literacy and math specialists and to provide training and materials to schools.

The philosophy behind Smart Start is that it is necessary to instill reading and math skills in students at the earliest levels so that they are better prepared to excel in academics in middle and upper levels.