Local control blues

Capital city’s school troubles worth keeping eye on

Quite a drama is playing out in Little Rock right now. The Arkansas Board of Education is trying to collect ideas but is instead getting an earful from patrons of the Little Rock School District.

Parents, teachers and others have been turning out by the hundreds for a series of ongoing public forums conducted by the state Education Board. Many are voicing anger over continued state control of their schools.

What’s happening in Little Rock matters to the rest of Arkansas. The outcome may set a template for state action when other large school districts get in similar trouble.

Here’s the history:

The state took over the Little Rock School District in January 2015. Today, it is under control of the state education commissioner, Johnny Key.

The school district has no local school board. The duly elected local board was dissolved at the time of the takeover. The then-superintendent remained for a short while, answering to Key, but two superintendents have since held the post.

Key sets policy, approves the district’s budget and takes other action a school board might, acting in his role as state education commissioner.

Little Rock’s district is hardly the only school district to face such indignities. Smaller districts have struggled to meet state standards to win release from state control. Otherwise, the schools faced consolidation or annexation to a neighboring school district.

There is a third possibility set out in the law. It’s called “reconstitution,” only the law doesn’t define what that is.

Nonetheless, that seems to be what could be awaiting Little Rock, if all of its schools do not meet requirements by an end-of-the-year deadline.

The state Education Board seemed to be trying last week to get input from district patrons on how they’d want the state to define “reconstitution,” if the district remains in academic trouble.

Keep in mind that this is a really large school district. We’re talking something like 40 schools, more than 24,000 students and 3,800 employees. Eight of its campuses currently have F grades.

Criteria set earlier this year by the Legislature requires those F-rated schools to get better grades and the district to meet other exit goals by January 2020.

By then, Little Rock schools will have had five years under state control. Yet they may still not meet required standards.

Whose fault is that?

Patrons in the Little Rock crowds last week placed a lot of responsibility on those exercising state control.

The one constant in the confrontational forums has been a loud plea for a return to local control.

That is what everyone involved in this drama really seems to want. State Education Board members and local legislators said as much. There is, however, the legal requirement for the district to meet its obligations to the children of Little Rock, to provide an equitable and adequate education to all.

That day-to-day task falls to teachers and administrators under Superintendent Michael Poore, whom Key hired away from Bentonville in 2016. There is also an advisory board appointed by the state Education Board that makes recommendations to Key. But Key has the last word.

Until now, Key has attended none of the forums. State education department staff have gone.

Some patrons suspect Key has a plan for the Little Rock schools that he hasn’t shared with the public. They don’t expect to like it.

Part of the suspicion stems from leading questions in an online survey offered as an alternative way to give input to the school district.

The questions, for example, suggest the closure of schools that do not meet exit criteria and movement of students to higher-performing schools.

They also pose the possibility that some schools could remain under state control and others be returned to local control.

The drama over Little Rock schools is far from over — if ever it will be.

Another forum was scheduled Tuesday. There could yet be more, if the state Education Board really wants input from school patrons.

These first forums let a lot of anger out, including allegations of racism that contributes to academically struggling schools.

But there were calls, too, for unity within the district. Therein lies hope for people to work together toward some solution.

A parent asked those at Thursday’s meeting to take their neighbor’s hand and “repeat after me.”

They did.

“We are in this together. We are one Little Rock School District. And we cannot be divided.”

Unfortunately, they can be divided.

But maybe they won’t be, if enough of them can get on the same page.