Wilburn senator introduces bill to halt forced school consolidations
Arkansas Sen. John Payton, R-Wilburn, on Tuesday introduced a bill aimed at stripping the Arkansas Board of Education of its authority to require an administrative consolidation of school districts with fewer than 350 students.
His introduction of Senate Bill 262 surprised key state senators who have been working on draft legislation that would implement Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ proposed education overhaul.
SB262 would eliminate a part of state law under which a school district on the consolidation list that doesn’t submit a petition to the state Board of Education to voluntarily administrative consolidate or annex, or does not receive approval by the board for a voluntary consolidation or annexation petition, is required to be administratively consolidated by the board with or into one or more school districts by May 1 and effective July 1 unless the school district has been granted a waiver.
The bill also would ax a part of state law the states any school district required to be administratively consolidated shall be administratively consolidated to create a resulting district with average daily membership meeting or exceeding 350 students.
State law requires the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education by January 1 of each year to publish a list of all school districts with fewer than 350 students in the school year immediately preceding the current school year, and a consolidation list that includes all school districts with fewer than 350 students in each of the two school years immediately preceding the current school year.
Payton said “we need other tools and other reasons to consolidate, but the arbitrary number of 350 should not be what we go by.”
He said his rural school district superintendents are worried about “school choice” making it more difficult to maintain an enrollment of 350 students to avoid being consolidated.
“In my personal experience, the schools that got consolidated in our area were high-quality, operating in the black [school districts],” Payton said.
Act 377 of 2015 already allows school districts with student enrollment that falls below 350 and are not in financial, academic or facilities distress to apply to the state Board of Education for a waiver to continue to operate independently. Under Act 60 of 2004, school districts with fewer than than 350 students are required to consolidate.
Payton said he doesn’t know whether he has a shot of getting his SB262 through the Legislature.
“I just filed it, so I am getting the feedback now,” he said.
Asked about Payton’s bill, Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, said Tuesday, “I think it is very difficult to put a hard and fast number on any community because we have seen what consolidation does to those local communities.
“But we are in the business of trying to educate students, so anything that we do should be focused on the student, and I think that will be part of the debate here,” he said in an interview. “…. We do know that when you shut down a school in a community, a community quickly dies, so we will take that into account and whatever decision we make will be based on the student.”
Sen. Breanne Davis, R-Russellville, said Tuesday afternoon that she hasn’t read Payton’s bill but she understands the concept behind it.
“I understand what he was trying to do, but I think there should probably be more metrics in there,” she said.
Davis said some of the schools that were shut down through school district consolidation were well-performing schools.
“Just saying for the sake of numbers we are not going to close it, I think is one thing,” she said. “But having some additional things in there like performance-based, I think that would make more sense.
“If a school is performing well and they happen to fall under 350, then I understand that argument and I think that is worth debate and worth a conversation,” Davis said.
She said Sanders’ proposed education overhaul legislation “is not going to produce consolidation” of school districts.
“This bill, as much as people are talking about charter schools and private schools, heavily supports public schools,” said Davis, a former Russellville School Board member.
“Our governor and the secretary of the Department of Education and the Legislature, we are believers in public schools,” she said. “Three of my children go to public school. We are working to make sure that our public schools are supported. We have a lot of really great public schools, so I think there is just fear of the unknown, which is not uncommon in any of these legislative fights.”
Davis said she hopes to file the bill by the end of this week and run the bill in the Senate Education Committee at the start of next week.
A week ago, Sanders announced plans to increase the state’s starting teacher salary by $14,000 to $50,000 a year and offer vouchers to every student as part of what she described as “the most far-reaching, bold and conservative education reforms anywhere in the entire country.”
The voucher program, called education freedom accounts, would allow students to attend private or home schools and will be phased in over three years, the governor said at that time.
Sanders said her plan also will include funding for reading coaches to improve literacy, bonuses “to our best educators,” grants for struggling students to hire tutors and a “dual diploma program” to better prepare students to enter the workforce upon graduation.
The bill will cost roughly $300 million for the first year, with $150 million in new spending, Sanders said a week ago.
Sanders’ office on Tuesday night issued a news release titled “Myth vs. Fact” Arkansas LEARNS,” referring to her education overhaul.
Among other things, the governor’s office said it’s a myth that educational freedom accounts will hurt public education and close rural schools.
“Actually the opposite is true,” the governor’s office said in its news release. “Research shows that Educational Freedom Accounts lead to better outcomes in traditional public schools. That’s because they empower parents of all incomes to customize their child’s education; if the local school district is the best option, it won’t lose any kids.”