BENTONVILLE — A Republican candidate for governor wants to revamp the state’s education system by limiting regulations, abolishing the minimum size for school districts and fullyfunding community colleges.
Curtis Coleman, a Little Rock businessman, unveiled his education plan Wednesday morning in the Shewmaker Center at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. He then traveled to Little Rock andJonesboro, making the same announcement in those cities.
Coleman faces former Congressman Asa Hutchinson and state Rep. Debra Hobbs, R-Rogers, in the primary election May 20. The general election is Nov. 4.
Coleman is calling his plan “Arkansas at the Head of the Class.” The plan has four parts: “Let Teachers Teach,” “Let Parents Choose,” “Let Schools Live” and “Let Students Succeed.”
Coleman said that if elected twice as governor, he hoped to accomplish the goals in eight years but that it would take cooperation from the state Legislature.
Arkansas could be one of the most prosperous states, but instead ranks 49th in median household income, Coleman said.
Public school teachers in Arkansas spend too much of the school day filling out paperwork, Coleman said.
“Fundamentally and functionally, we’ve got to get government out of the way and return control of our schools to local communities, local parents and local school boards,” Coleman said.
Coleman said his plan calls for legislation that will:
◊Limit the number, and kinds of programs and standards that can “be forced upon local school districts.”
◊Give school administrators and local school boards the right to reward high-achieving teachers and terminate underperforming teachers.
◊Give local administrators, teachers and school boards the power to choose the curricula and standardized tests.
◊Give local administrators, teachers and school boards the power to choose which, if any, federal programs theywant to implement in their schools, and therefore which federal programs they want to prove compliance and for which they will accept federal funds.
Coleman said his plan would broaden the state’s school choice law, which he said allows “very limited” school choice within districts. (The Public School Choice Act of 2013 is Arkansas Code Annotated 6-18-1901 et seq.)
If parents can’t afford a private school or home-schooling, their child “may be trapped in a failing school which itself may be trapped in a government-mandated monopoly,” said Coleman.
“Every parent must have the ability and liberty to rescue their children from failing schools and enroll them in a school where they can get the very best education possible,” he said.
School choice can be accomplished, Coleman said, through vouchers, education savings accounts, tax-credit scholarships, and individual tax credits and deductions.
“School choice must encompass a variety of options, including public schools, private schools, charter schools, home-schooling and online learning,” he said.
Coleman said he wants to repeal Act 60 of 2004, which requires school districts to be consolidated if their enrollments drop below 350 pupils for two consecutive years.
“The current 350-student minimum enrollment is an arbitrary political threshold that is unsupported by any studies about school effectiveness,” said Coleman. “We’ve been closing some of the bestschools in Arkansas and destroying their communities in the process.”
Arkansas, like the rest of the nation, has a shortage of skilled labor, Coleman said.
“Twenty years ago our state had 23 technical schools to prepare students to successfully enjoy a variety of different vocations,” Coleman said. “Today, we only have three technical schools in the state, and you have to be in prison to go to one of them.”
Coleman said his plan calls for rebuilding the statewide infrastructure of schools that provide technical training. Those can include high schools and community colleges. The technical courses could start as early as 10th grade, he said.
The objective, said Coleman, is to produce graduates who are immediately ready to go to work and provide for their families.
“There are Arkansas businesses begging for people who can weld, operate a machine or repair a robot,” he said. “And these are great-paying jobs, many far above the average pay scale in Arkansas.”
Coleman wants community colleges to be 100 percent state-funded. That would require an additional $42 million a year in state funds.
Coleman proposed temporarily taking $21 million from state allocations for four-year universities. Tuition would remain the same at the community colleges, but there would be more financial aid and scholarships, along with concurrent courses in high schools, he said.
Another $21 million can be funded through reductions in“administrative and oversight costs” in the state Department of Education budget - savings that will come from the “Let Teachers Teach” prong of the plan after cuts are made in regulatory control, he said.
Hobbs said Coleman’s ideas sound good.
“But I’ve been around long enough to know there are differences between theory and reality,” she said. “I like the local-control idea, but I also know when we have failing schools and teachers that are not teaching, the state has to intervene. We have to be accountable and make sure our students are being taught.”
Hobbs said she doesn’t agree with Coleman’s proposal to take money from universities “to shore up” community colleges. Money for community colleges could be found elsewhere, she said.
Hobbs has been in the House since 2009 and can’t run for re-election because of term limits. She has served on the House Education Committee for the past four years.
Jon Gilmore, a spokesman for Hutchinson’s campaign, said Hutchinson had no comment regarding Coleman’s education plan.
On Jan. 13, Hutchinson announced his education plan at a news conference in Springdale.
If elected governor, Hutchinson said, he’ll work with the state Legislature to pass a law so computer-science courses count toward core high school graduation credit in math or science. Hutchinson said the plan could make Arkansas a national leader in technology education and job creation.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/30/2014