Panels hold off on hiring for study

Education-funds review drew 1 bid

After receiving just one bid of nearly $1 million, state lawmakers voted to delay for two months hiring a consultant to review Arkansas’ education funding process.

The House and Senate education committees rejected a motion to contract with Augenblick, Palaich and Associates for a review of the Legislature’s biennial education adequacy review.

The Denver-based consulting firm submitted a proposal to do the review for $943,605, but that price gave members of both parties pause.

The committees accepted Senate President Pro Tempore Jim Hendren’s motion to issue a new request for proposals over the next 60 days. Hendren’s chief concern was the lack of additional bids given the higher sticker price, but he said he also had some questions about the consulting firm’s proposed study.

“The only thing this motion does is say, ‘Before we spend a million dollars in taxpayer money on something that’s as important to this state as education, perhaps there’s time for some more due diligence,’” the Sulphur Springs Republican said.

The House and Senate education committees review the state’s public-school funding formula every two years, making recommendations to the governor and General Assembly on how to distribute Arkansas’ education dollars.

Public schools receive the largest singular chunk of the state’s general revenue. In fiscal 2020, which begins

July 1, $2.25 billion of the $5.75 billion general revenue budget will go to the Public School Fund.

The legislative panels’ biennial education adequacy review determines the amount and how it’s distributed. The committees’ recommendations are the state’s highest funding priority.

The practice began after 2003 legislation passed in the wake of the Arkansas Supreme Court’s Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee decision finding the state’s system was inadequate and unconstitutional.

The biennial report sets the per-student amount for public school districts, which is $6,781 per student in the 2018-19 school year.

The committees in their last report — issued in November — recommended the hiring of a consultant to review the Legislature’s adequacy study.

Lawmakers from both parties agreed the adequacy process needed an outside look. The process was established in 2003 based on recommendations from a pair of college professors — Larry Picus of the University of Southern California and Allan Odden of the University of Wisconsin-Madison — who contracted to perform a study to determine how the state could address the court’s concerns raised in the Lake View case.

Odden and Picus have done several supplemental reviews since 2003, and the Legislature has made minor tweaks to the adequacy process and funding formula. But most of the professors’ initial recommendations remain the foundation of the biennial adequacy reports. Odden and Picus’ original contract was for $350,000.

Justin Silverstein, co-CEO of Augenblick, Palaich and Associates, told lawmakers Wednesday his company would examine Arkansas’ system from a variety of angles. His team, he said, would consider input from parents,

students, teachers, business leaders and administrators and also would examine how high-performing districts spend state dollars.

The consultants would deliver their findings to the education committees before the next adequacy report, due in November 2020.

Augenblick, Palaich and Associates has done similar work in 23 other states, including Louisiana and Mississippi. Silverstein said after the meeting his firm would review the new request for proposal to determine whether it would submit another bid.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson, through a spokesman, said he deferred to the General Assembly to balance “the cost and outcomes that go with an outside consultant.”

Rep. Reginald Murdock, D-Marianna, vice chairman of the House Education Committee, questioned whether Hendren and other members wanted to delay the contract because they were concerned consultants may find the state hasn’t been adequately funding

education.

Several members said earlier in the meeting the committees need to be careful about any declarations about school-funding levels because it could prompt a repeat of Lake View. Hendren also noted the General Assembly must always keep in mind it still “has to balance the budget.”

“They will expose, possibly, some things that we have or have not done,” Murdock said. “We need to get someone in front of us that will tell us the truth, even things that we do not want to hear, and then we make good policy decisions.”

Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock, also questioned why the panel didn’t want to accept Augenblick, Palaich and Associates’ proposal.

“What is the reason other than we don’t like them?” Walker asked.

Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, responded without being recognized by the chairman.

“It costs too damn much,” she said.