Lesson LEARNed

Budget ax falls on NWA education cooperative

Politicians talk in lofty terms about what they’re going to get accomplished. It’s a necessary component of their chosen profession, if they hope to achieve or extend their life in public office. So voters get earfuls of pledges to do this and promises to do that, whether it’s to build a wall and have another country pay for it or to wipe clean student debt.

What’s more rare is an advance explanation detailing how a politician will accomplish what’s promised, because such details carry risks. If skilled politicians have shown us anything, it’s that they’re firm and decisive when other options are limited. Taking a hard stand before it’s necessary leaves little wiggle room.

Sarah Sanders, the governor of this fine state, promised in the LEARNS Act passed early in her term that she was going to improve literacy. She called it the most critical part of her education reform.

Flash forward to early March 2024. The Arkansas Department of Education axed six staff members of the Northwest Arkansas Education Service Cooperative. The cooperative provides professional development opportunities for its 17 member districts with the goal of expanding knowledge, skills and techniques to help improve student achievement, according to its website.

Director Bryan Law was left to break the news to employees, some of whom had worked for close to 30 years and, Law said, “committed their life to improving instruction for students and teachers in Northwest Arkansas.”

According to Law, the state agency’s explanation was that the program wasn’t the most effective use of funds.

“That’s certainly not the way I feel,” Law said.

The cooperative will lose three of four instructional facilitators in literacy, one of its two math facilitators, one of two science facilitators and its gifted and talented coordinator.

Education Secretary Jacob Oliva told State Rep. Denise Garner of Fayetteville in a January meeting at the state Capitol that the administration would not continue to do “business as usual and fund positions because that is what we have always funded.” He said just giving money to the cooperatives around the state is watering down the state’s efforts.

Oliva’s department will instead use the money as it deems necessary.

Sanders, in pushing the LEARNS Act, did promise to fund literacy tutors and raise teacher salaries. She didn’t provide details that education cooperative staff would be on the chopping block.

That wouldn’t have been a strong selling point for LEARNS, so the budgetary ax falls in 2024 after the fact. Time will tell how the details play out.

There’s still much to LEARN.