Asa Hutchinson’s Education Officials Aren’t Even Trying to Justify Their Decisions in LRSD with Evidence.
The Arkansas State Board of Education (SBoE) and Education Commissioner Johnny Key (who has served as the one-man “school board” for the Little Rock School District since state takeover in 2015) recently de-certified the Little Rock Education Association (LREA) for collective bargaining in LRSD.
In response, the LREA and other LRSD employees who stand in solidarity with the union will be going on strike tomorrow.
Tomorrow’s strike will allow teachers to attend the SBoE meeting scheduled for 10:00. This is the first time since the school year started that LRSD personnel will be able to address their acting school board about issues affecting personnel in LRSD.
LRSD doesn’t have a waiver from the law that requires school boards and committees to meet after 5:00 PM to discuss issues affecting personnel. Johnny Key just violates whatever laws he doesn’t like (if they’re not rewritten or waived in time) and Asa Hutchinson allows it. What on earth does Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s Public Integrity Division even do, anyway?
But I digress.
Action Item 13: LRSD Reconstitution
At tomorrow’s State Board meeting, Lori Freno (General Counsel for the DESE – Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) will propose adding two new members to the LRSD Community Advisory Board (CAB.) The CAB is a powerless puppet tribunal that makes recommendations to Johnny Key while the LRSD is under state control. Increasing the CAB from seven to nine members tomorrow will open up two new positions on the school board for whenever LRSD returns to local control in the future.
Adding school board positions for local districts is not one of the State Board’s “powers and duties” enumerated in subsections 1-7 or 9-12 of ACA ยง 6-11-105(a,) so it must fall under subsection 8(B): “The State Board of Education shall take such other action as it may deem necessary to promote the organization and efficiency of the public schools of the state.”
As I’ve argued before, pretty much nothing about Arkansas public education is organized or efficient. In LRSD, state control has increased disorganization and inefficiency, pitted educators against each other, and caused a drop in school grades. DESE’s proposals for exiting LRSD from state control have outraged the community. Decertifying the LREA has triggered a teacher strike.
Why, instead of addressing these legitimate concerns as state law requires, is the State Board considering the addition of two, new CAB seats before returning LRSD to local control?
Will it improve academic outcomes?
The DESE, under Johnny Key, says it’s trying to implement a vision of “…transforming Arkansas to lead the nation in student-focused education.” Indeed, four of its five department goals are student-focused, with the fifth focusing on the “customers” who are being served.
To help me understand why Johnny Key and the SBoE decertified the union and are trying to add seats to the Community Advisory Board, I emailed all of them (plus the DESE Director of Communications) to ask how these changes are likely to serve LRSD students.
At the same time, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for “copies of all research, communication with members of the public, and notes compiled in 2019 by Johnny Key and members of the State Board of Education related to their recent decision to decertify the Little Rock Education Association,” and “copies of all research, communication with members of the public, and notes compiled in 2019 by Johnny Key & members of the SBoE related to the number of school board seats in LRSD.”
Where’s the Evidence?
Johnny Key, Diane Zook, Kimberly Mundell, Sarah Moore, Chad Pekron, Brett Williamson, Fitz Hill, Kathy McFetridge, Ouida Newton, and Charisse Dean have all failed to provide any evidence showing a relationship between the number of school board seats and student growth/academic success. They have all failed to provide evidence suggesting that union decertification will likely improve LRSD’s ability to meet exit criteria.
My FOIA request for their research, resources, and notes on these items has also produced no responsive documents, thus far.
If Arkansas’ education officials can’t produce any evidence linking their decisions to likely future improvements in student success, and we can easily see that their unresearched decisions are destabilizing LRSD by causing disorganization and inefficiency, then isn’t it time to say that the State Board of Education is violating Arkansas law?
They are so afraid of teachers actually showing up to this meeting that they took away all personal days so we CAN’T attend and threatened us with being fired if we do.
Elizabeth….send me your email so I can share all this documentation.