Monday, March 18, 2013
FAYETTEVILLE - Northwest Arkansas superintendents are concerned a bill on school choice before the Senate Education Committee threatens financial stability and educational efficiency and could result in a resegregation of schools districts across the state.
They contend Senate Bill 65 could force some smaller districts into consolidation if too many parents opt to withdraw their students from a district.
Senate Bill 65
This bill states a school district receiving students as transfers will not discriminate on the basis of gender, national origin, race, ethnicity, religion, disability or academic or athletic eligibility.
Other provisions of the proposed legislation:
-School boards must adopt specific standards on which transfers will be allowed, such as capacity of program, class, grade level or school building.
-School districts won’t have to add teachers, staff or classrooms to accommodate transfers.
-Standards can’t include a student’s previous academic achievement, athletic or other extracurricular ability, disability, English proficiency level, or previous disciplinary proceedings except in the case of an expulsion.
-A student who is denied a transfer can request a hearing before the State Board of Education to reconsider the transfer.
-Transportation is the responsibility of the student or his parents.
Source: www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly
Superintendents said there’s no way to assess the impact of the bill, introduced by Sen. Johnny Key, R-Mountain Home, who is also chairman of the Senate Education Committee.
Key said Friday he sponsored Senate Bill 65 because parents in Arkansas are left without a law governing public school choice because a 1989 law was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge last year. Those parents who want to send their children to school in another district need a mechanism to do so without waiting on further court decisions, he added.
Key said he didn’t think his bill would trigger massive resegregation in Arkansas schools.
The superintendents met Thursday at the Northwest Arkansas Education Services Cooperative in Farmington to discuss developing a position statement on the proposed legislation.
“The potential is enormous,” Springdale Superintendent Jim Rollins said about the consequences the legislation poses.
Rollins and other superintendents want the committee to put the bill on a back burner until the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis rules on the constitutionality of the school choice law in Arkansas.
“It’s very unlikely this Legislature will wait on the 8th Circuit,” Rollins said.
There are 12,691 students attending schools outside their home districts under the school choice law, said Phyllis Stewart, chief of staff at the Arkansas Department of Education.
Open school choice transfers also could jeopardize planning for adequate facilities because students could be moved from one district to another every year.
State per pupil funding, or foundation funding, amounts to $6,234 this year. The money follows the student. A growing district receives more state money.
Districts collect local tax revenue on real and personal property to make up the difference between the state money and the cost to provide the education services.
“A lot of taxpayers not involved in choice could pay higher taxes,” said Greenland Superintendent Charles Cudney.
“The quality of education may suffer for students who don’t use school choice or if enrollment declines,” Cudney said.
Siloam Springs Superintendent Ken Ramey said, “These decisions by parents affect what we offer in our schools. We are moving forward. I see no need to reinvent the wheel.”
Students have two options to transfer to another district in addition to the Arkansas Public School Choice act of 1989 which a U.S. district judge ruled unconstitutional last summer.
The lawsuit stemmed from a group of seven parents who sued because the 1989 law prevented transfering their children from Malvern to Magnet Cove solely on the basis of race.
Senate Bill 65 would give parents almost unlimited options to transfer students to any district. The only restriction is one open choice transfer request per year.
Of the 239 school districts in Arkansas, eight districts are exempt from the legislation because they are under federal desegregation rulings, Rollins said. All other districts could resegregate under this legislation, depending on the number of transfer requests spawned.
Two transfer options are available now. A school board can release a student to attend another district if the receiving board agrees and a student can request to leave a school if it has been labeled failing for two years according to state accountability provisions.
The superintendents plan to develop a position paper in the next few days although no timetable or delivery to committee members was set. Several want to get it in the hands of the Senate Education Committee by this week. Richard Abernathy, director of the Arkansas Association of Education Administrators, said the committee meets on Mondays and Wednesdays.
The committee discussed the bill at length on Wednesday but no vote was taken because Key noted he didn’t have the five votes at that time required to move the bill out of committee and to the full Senate.
The bill contains an emergency clause which means, if approved, it could become effective soon after if Gov. Mike Beebe signs the bill into law.