Never give up on public education
Editorial
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Sunday, December 16, 2007
WHO WOULD have blamed Roy Brooks, the definitely former Little Rock school superintendent, if he had moved to Alaska ? Or worse, Texas . Being targeted by a group of reactionary school board members dead set on restoring the mediocre old order—no matter what the cost to the public—might’ve turned a lesser man against even pulled-pork sandwiches and piney woods. But it seems Roy Brooks is more than just patient. He’s dedicated. And determined to do his best even if others do their worst.
Imagine choosing to stick around to see that local kids get the best education possible after what Dr. Brooks was put through this past year. He’s been ’buked and scorned because he refused to settle for the status quo and mediocrity in local education. He’s been badmouthed, falsely accused and generally dissed. As for his dream of making Little Rock ’s the bestperforming urban school district in the country, he’s had to stand by and watch as a bare but willful majority of Little Rock ’s school board wreaked havoc.
How sad. In a school district where his arrival had raised such hopes, politics and patronage soon took precedence over Roy Brooks’ goal: raising educational standards. His crime? He focused on progress in the classroom, and wouldn’t go along with all the featherbedding he found at district headquarters. He’d offended the all-powerful teachers’ union. Clearly he had to go. Anybody else might have got the hint—and bid the whole town goodbye and good riddance. Not Roy Brooks. Who does he think he is, some kind of educator? Doesn’t he know when he’s not wanted?
Apparently not. For he’s still in Little Rock , and he’s still fighting to improve public education. And how. He’s just turned up as a consultant to the group that’s installing three new and highly promising charter schools in the old Gazette building in downtown Little Rock . (Full disclosure: A man around here named Walter Hussman Jr. heads the company that owns the old Gazette building.)
LAST WEEK the state Board of Education approved, unanimously, three new e-STEM charter schools—one elementary, one middle, and one high school. What’s in that name? Well, e-STEM stands for Economics of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The 850-some-odd kids due to enter these schools are also to get some background in foreign languages—specifically Latin, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.
“When I was superintendent of the Little Rock School District , we talked about becoming the highest-achieving urban school district in the nation,” Roy Brooks said after the state board voted to approve the charters for these schools. “Now we are talking about competing on the world stage. We are talking about being one of the highest-achieving schools in the world.”
How about that? Push this guy out the door and he figures out a way to land on his feet. Roy Brooks just doesn’t know how to give up. Thank goodness. He keeps hope alive in local education.
As far as Little Rock ’s school board goes, it’s still fighting Roy Brooks’ dream. The board voted to urge the state to oppose all three charter schools. After all, people shouldn’t expect clear, measurable results in public education. Or innovation or accountablity or any of the other values Dr. Brooks has championed in Little Rock . Those are subversive ideas that might shake up all the dead wood in the system. They’re dangerous notions—almost as dangerous as rewarding the best teachers for no reason other than merit—and a demonstrated ability to educate their students. Can’t have that. Not when there are teachers’ unions to appease.
Both the school board’s president and its interim superintendent attended the meeting of the state Board of Education that approved the new charter schools. Neither spoke. They just sat there and listened. It was a step up. Their silence became them after all the stumbling blocks the school board has put in the way of these charter schools. And in the way of quality education in general in the state’s largest school district.
ONCE UPON a time Charles V, whose realm was christened the Holy Roman Empire, said he spoke Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to his horse. In the future, Mr. and Mrs. America , you may still speak German to your horse, but you just might need to know some Mandarin Chinese to speak to your associates, competitors and friends in business, science and many another endeavor. And now these kids are going to get some lessons.
Mandarin Chinese? Is this still Arkansas ? Is this still Dogpatch and Joe Btfsplk and bad roads and governors whose only relationship with the federal government was to defy it? Of course not. Just look around. At Wal-Mart and Tyson and Alltel and Stephens and Dillard’s and Murphy . . . and all the rest. If the likes of Roy Brooks have anything to say about it, there’ll be more world-wide businesses popping up in these parts. And they’ll need welleducated people to lead them.
How resist the mix of languages to be offered at these schools? Not only because they reflect the varieties of human experience (every language is a whole different view of the world) and not only because they’re the languages one might pick for scientists, technicians and entrepreneurs in this quickly globalizing economy. But because each of those languages is so rich a depository of human history, feeling, discipline and adaptation to the world.
We keep thinking about Mandarin Chinese in particular, and how tough it’s going to be for these kids to learn a non-Western language. (Though not as tough as it would be later in life after the little gray cells begin to harden. Believe us.) The choice of Chinese for these students impresses. At this school, there is to be no room for the soft bigotry of low expectations. These kids will be expected to learn. Just as Roy Brooks has always expected kids to. Dr. Brooks has never been much for accepting excuses for doing less than one’s best.
THESE CHARTER schools mean a rebirth of hope in Little Rock.
Hope for real educational achievement after a long year of squalid infighting in the school district. And what a fitting site for this experiment: The home of a great newspaper that, half a century ago, stood almost alone for broadening educational opportunity in this state, particularly for nine courageous black students determined to exercise their rights under the Constitution of the United States and the law of the land. Now, once again, the historic old Gazette building is to become a light where education is concerned, showing the way to a better future. History has come full circle. Here’s hoping these new schools meet their high aims. And if they do, may their tribe increase. A city can always use more excellence.
Talk about poetic justice: Roy Brooks’ dream of making Little Rock ’s the best performing urban school district in the country may have been put on hold for a while, but now it lives again. We suspect Dr. Brooks is going to make these charter schools more than high-achieving educational institutions. It would be just like him to make these e-STEM schools a shining light and a byword for what public education can achieve when it’s freed from the stultifying grip of petty, vindictive, self-absorbed politics.
Public education is more than Roy Brooks’ calling. With him, reviving the promise of excellence now has become a personal point of honor.
We’ve never been among those who yearn to be young again; we can remember too clearly the frustrations and confusions of youth. But on this occasion, we have to admit, we do envy Roy Brooks’ students. What an opportunity they’ll have. And we suspect they’re going to take full advantage of it—and make not just Dr. Brooks but all of us proud.
The moral of this story: Never—never—give up on public education in Arkansas .
Never.
