Education progress

I’ve been following Gov. Sarah Sanders’ LEARNS program designed to reform education in Arkansas. She has commented that only 35 percent of our kids could read at grade level. Oh my gosh … time to do something different because what we’ve been doing for years (and before the covid shutdown) has obviously not been working. So I began looking online and found the following information.

On the Booneville School District webpage it states that the district has a 95 percent graduation rate, which is 6 percentage points above the statewide graduation rate. (In 2021 Booneville spent an average of $11,620 per student.) And the National Center for Education Statistics and the Arkansas Department of Education say that the Booneville graduation rate is in the top 20 percent in Arkansas. However, our math proficiency is 33 percent and our reading proficiency is at the 33 percent level. I admit that I am not a math major, but doesn’t that mean that we are graduating a lot of kids who can’t read proficiently and solve simple math problems?

It will be interesting to see how Governor Sanders’ plan works out in the future. She must feel as I do: If you keep doing the same thing over and over you’ll get the same results. Meanwhile, I think the education system should raise a “red flag” to let all know that the education of our children should be a top priority. And certainly, standards need to be raised to reflect the reality of this dire situation. How about posting any progress made in reading/math scores on the digital displays in town? Let the citizens know that this is a priority in our community and that a “high school diploma” actually has merit.

ANDI ELLIOTT Booneville