Sponsor pulls bill on overhauling education co-ops

LITTLE ROCK — A bill to overhaul the makeup of public education cooperatives failed to make it through a House committee Tuesday.

Education service cooperatives are regional associations of school districts that meet to share resources, data, personnel and equipment. Each school district in the education cooperative appoints a member to its board of directors, which often is the district’s superintendent.

Rep. Jon Eubanks, R-Paris, said his aim with House Bill 1192 was to bar superintendents from overseeing the education cooperatives in hopes principals, teachers and other education officials would instead fill the slots.

Eubanks pulled his bill before a vote, sensing it did not have support from a majority of members on the committee.

If passed, the bill would ban superintendents and assistant superintendents from serving on a board of directors for an education cooperative. Eubanks said the bill was meant to end the influence superintendents had over education cooperatives.

“When you have a group of people who all have similar backgrounds, they usually look at things through the same lens,” Eubanks said.

Some members of the committee said they want to have school administrators on the cooperative boards, saying local school districts did not want to be limited on who they could pick to represent them.

“I still primarily would like to see the decision to rest with the local school board,” said Rep. Hope Duke, R-Gravette.

Rep. Denise Garner, D- Fayetteville, asked Eubanks to pull the bill, saying he should introduce an amendment that would only “fix the ones that aren’t working.”

“Our co- op is doing great,” Garner said. “I’ve got teachers that love it. I’ve got principals that love it. I’ve got superintendents that love it. I’m having a problem understanding why we would change that.”

Eubanks said he is working on amending the bill again, saying he hopes he can find a compromise that will earn enough support from members on the committee.

“I understand if you have one that’s operating well you don’t want to change it,” Eubanks said. “I’m just not convinced that they’re all operating correctly.”

A previous version of the bill would have given the power to make appointments to education cooperative boards to the speaker of the house, the senate president pro-tempore, the governor and the secretary of education, but Eubanks amended it to keep appointment powers with individual school districts.

The bill would repeal the Public Education Cooperative Act of 1981 and amend the Education Service Cooperative Act of 1985.