Won’t solve problem

My name is Georganne Rollans. I am a retired principal, Milken educator, and school board member. I am a proponent for public education. My message is for Arkansas legislators and the voters who elected them.

I believe legislators should listen to voices from the field — teachers, principals, and retired educators — to improve education in Arkansas.

As a former principal of a school with marginalized students, these statistics were daunting: 90% free and reduced lunch (that is poverty); 50% transiency (means half of your classroom population moves in or out constantly, due to eviction); Report Card Grade “D” (means most students tested basic or below in literacy/math).

We needed funding to target struggling students, families, and to change our statistics. Thanks to the state Department of Education, Title I funding, and Rockefeller grants, we began our professional collaboration, building on strengths and targeting our needs. We became a nationally recognized school in just three years because we learned to work smarter. This process can be duplicated. Improvement requires bold leadership by a dedicated staff, and adequate funding for public schools to meet the needs of students, teachers and parents.

We need solutions that benefit all students versus private school vouchers that take taxpayer funds away from public education. This will weaken existing struggling public schools. Compare statistics from other states with voucher systems. In Arizona, over half of the applicants for vouchers were already attending private schools, or homeschooled. Only 3.5% of the applicants were from failing schools. In Indiana, of the 44,376 students enrolled in private schools with vouchers, only 421 of those students had moved from a failing public school.

These statistics put a big hole in the argument that vouchers are there to “save” children from terrible schools.

My point: Vouchers won’t improve literacy for most Arkansas families!

GEORGANNE ROLLANS Russellville