Editorials
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
ASA HUTCHINSON’S latest brainstorm—to appoint a member of the state Board of Education to act as an Advocate for Rural Folks—is more than a little strange. ’Cause don’t the current members of the board, no matter where they’re from, want what’s best for all of Arkansas’ students, not just the city kids? Aren’t we all supposed to be in this together? Do we really want to start pitting some members of the board against others?
Anyway, if Asa! is elected governor, he’d be free to appoint whomever he wishes to the Board of Education. One suspects that this proposal of Asa!’s has less to do with improving education in Arkansas than trolling for rural voters.
Mr. Hutchinson also proposes that the state water down its academic standards for the public schools. For example, he’d let small schools opt out of the statewide requirement that high schools teach a minimum of 38 required courses on campus. This is an even worse idea.
For too long now, Arkansas has found itself on the top of bad lists and on the bottom of the good ones. Especially in education. Now the state is starting to get good news here and there. Teacher salaries are up. Merit pay has a foothold. Scores are inching higher. Accountability is getting real. But now along comes a candidate for governor who proposes that the state take a step, or three, backwards.
A similar proposal made its appearance at the end of the Legislature’s special session earlier this year. We were almost fooled into supporting it before a few folks who’d followed education in Arkansas for years sat us down and explained Reality.
That bill would have allowed a school not to teach, say, Algebra II if no one signed up for it. It sounded fair enough at first glance.
Enter Reality.
What if a small school can’t afford to hire teachers for all the courses, and little Sally decides she wants to take one of those courses anyway?
What do you want to bet that little Sally would be pressured into taking something else? Because (1) we don’t offer that this year, (2) are you sure you want that much homework? or (3) are you trying to get this school shut down, young lady?
Asa! was surrounded at his Friday news conference by folks who want to keep good ol’ Paron High open—even though it doesn’t teach all the required courses. Or meet the minimum standards. Nor does it hire enough teachers to teach those 38 required classes.
What’s more, officials from the Bryant School District say it wasn’t financially efficient to keep Paron open and running for about 100 students. Of course it wasn’t.
When the state requires a high school to offer a minimum number of courses, which requires a school district to hire a minimum number of teachers, but the high school only has about 100 kids in it, you can see how inefficient that would be.
Heck, the Bryant School District down the road offers more courses than there were kids at Paron High! The state decided to send Paron’s high schoolers where they could get a better, broader education—with the kind of options afforded kids in bigger towns.
A gubernatorial candidate’s pandering to Paron isn’t surprising, this being an election year. But it is disappointing. Asa! is missing the big picture. The kids from Paron, many of whom will now be going to Bryant High School, can choose from a menu of more than 160 courses there. Even if they choose a school that’s closer, they should be able to take more courses than Paron could offer.
If Paron could’ve offered all the courses that the state requires, and if it could have hired all the teachers needed to teach them, and still run an efficient campus, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. The issue would be moot, and Paron High would still be open. But it isn’t.
Some of Asa Hutchinson’s supporters wore T-shirts that said “Paron AR and proud of it.” We’re kinda proud of the kids at Paron, too. Especially after an e-mail made the rounds over the weekend pointing to the test scores at Paron High, and noting how many of its kids did better than others their age.
The email emphasized those subjects in which Paron’s students did better than those at Bryant. But let’s tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, which is what Bryant’s assistant superintendent—Larry Smith—was obliged to do before the court that considered this contentious case. In the 38 different ways in which the kids were assessed using standardized tests in different grades and different subjects, Paron’s students had a higher average score in 23, Bryant’s in 11, and both averaged the same in 4. Put the kids all together, and you have a dynamite school. In unity there is strength and all that.
Imagine what these kids will be able to do once they get to a school that offers more than 160 courses! Their future got suddenly brighter. And wait till you turn them loose in the arts and humanities, exposing them to extracurricular activities that might not have been available at Paron . . . .
Kids who excelled in a school that couldn’t offer the basics should do wonders once they’re able to take a lot more than the basics.
We’re pulling for them.
As for Asa!’s idea of diluting the state’s standards for public education, we’re not pulling for that.
IMAGINE the temptation facing a candidate running for governor in rural Arkansas—which is to say, Arkansas. He could tap into some of that outrage pouring out of tiny Paron, Ark., and call himself a Champion of The People. A regular Huey Long.
Oh, man, it must be tempting. You could get some real stemwinders out of all that anger spilling out of little Paron, Ark., where folks are still furious about the closing of Paron High. Never mind that Paron High didn’t meet the academic standards. Never mind that Paron High had some financial problems, too. Never mind all that. You’re a politician, ain’tcha? Well, then politick.
But sometimes a politician doesn’t act like a politician. Sometimes he says what he believes, even if it may mean losing an angry vote or two. Sometimes a politician acts like Mike Beebe. And at those times, he deserves our respect—not to mention admiration.
It happened Saturday at the Democratic Party’s state convention. The attorney general who wants to be governor knew what he said at that gathering would make the papers—and the Internet rounds. He said it anyway.
Just the day before, his opponent had come out with a proposal to exempt future Paron Highs from teaching the minimum number of courses required by the state. Because, according to the Asa Hutchinsons, we can’t expect a small, rural school to offer the same broad curriculum as Big City High.
But we can. We should. And we will. To quote Mike Beebe: “We should give every child in every school a world-class education. And let me tell you something else, Mr. Hutchinson, we will not relax the standards. Our kids can do as good a job as any other kids in the nation.”
Hear, hear!
Now that’s the Mike Beebe we remember from his finest moments in the Legislature over the past two decades. That legislative service may explain why he gets this issue. He’s seen the sausagemaking when it comes to improving our schools. And, like the rest of us who were there in the trenches, he’s now thrilled to see some of the positive results of recent reforms. For once, Arkansas raised the ceiling instead of lowering the floor.
And it’s paying off. Our kids are meeting the challenge. As we knew they could.
Relax the standards? Not on Mike Beebe’s watch. Attaway, sir. Don’t back down. We have just begun to educate. |
