Max
I'm happy to hear some background. Of course, the information came in the Chamber newsletter with its imprimatur so I don't think it's wrong to characterize it as a Chamber position, despite the origins.
Gary
Please note, I will not defend the Chamber, as I am not a spokesman for the organization. This is my initiative as a citizen and father.
Your title alone, LR Chamber plans school takeover, reads as though these were Chamber bills. The text that follows doesn't deal with the merits, but focuses on the motives of your imaginary puppet masters ("Good Suit Club," "Walton money"). Dig deeper. Ask Speaker Pro Tem Pierce who brought these measures forward. Ask Representative Hyde. Ask Representative Webb. Ask Representative Edwards. Ask Representative Wren. Ask Representative Kerr. Ask Senator Johnson. I shared my layman's text to all and asked them to sponsor. I approached Speaker Pro Tem Pierce first because he carried a school election date change bill in the last session. He led me to Representative Hyde because he had already filed a bill on recall of board members. While I've received encouragement and/or support from all I mentioned, it was Representative Hyde who stepped up to sponsor the bills, and for that I am deeply grateful.
I've also not hidden at all on these issues, as I have emailed and posted constantly since I first proposed the measures. I just don't have a very broad audience, thus your only finding out when sent the article of the Chamber's support.
My original proposal was a Public School District Accountability Act, which featured five measures: 1) Provision of recall of board members; 2) Change of school election date to General, 3) Rights of people to determine how their district will be zoned, 4) Requirement that districts follow February 8, 2011 directive of Arkansas School Board Association regarding redrawing of zones after census and holding all new elections, and 5) Posting of school board qualifications, responsibilities and rules for election on every local school district website as well as the Arkansas Department of Education. It took this motivated father of average intelligence days of digging to get answers to those simple questions. No wonder the people are disengaged.
I was ultimately only able to get 2 (HB 1551), 3 and 4 (HB 2140) sponsored and filed by the deadline.
Certainly, we can disagree on the merits. And while I seek (and welcome all support), I am not controlled (willingly or unwittingly) by anyone or any group. I understand conspiracy theorists may never accept that, but those who know me know my truth.
Max
Please note, I will not defend the Chamber, as I am not a spokesman for the organization. This is my initiative as a citizen and father.
Your title alone, LR Chamber plans school takeover, reads as though these were Chamber bills. The text that follows doesn't deal with the merits, but focuses on the motives of your imaginary puppet masters ("Good Suit Club," "Walton money"). Dig deeper. Ask Speaker Pro Tem Pierce who brought these measures forward. Ask Representative Hyde. Ask Representative Webb. Ask Representative Edwards. Ask Representative Wren. Ask Representative Kerr. Ask Senator Johnson. I shared my layman's text to all and asked them to sponsor. I approached Speaker Pro Tem Pierce first because he carried a school election date change bill in the last session. He led me to Representative Hyde because he had already filed a bill on recall of board members. While I've received encouragement and/or support from all I mentioned, it was Representative Hyde who stepped up to sponsor the bills, and for that I am deeply grateful.
I've also not hidden at all on these issues, as I have emailed and posted constantly since I first proposed the measures. I just don't have a very broad audience, thus your only finding out when sent the article of the Chamber's support.
My original proposal was a Public School District Accountability Act, which featured five measures: 1) Provision of recall of board members; 2) Change of school election date to General, 3) Rights of people to determine how their district will be zoned, 4) Requirement that districts follow February 8, 2011 directive of Arkansas School Board Association regarding redrawing of zones after census and holding all new elections, and 5) Posting of school board qualifications, responsibilities and rules for election on every local school district website as well as the Arkansas Department of Education. It took this motivated father of average intelligence days of digging to get answers to those simple questions. No wonder the people are disengaged.
I was ultimately only able to get 2 (HB 1551), 3 and 4 (HB 2140) sponsored and filed by the deadline.
Certainly, we can disagree on the merits. And while I seek (and welcome all support), I am not controlled (willingly or unwittingly) by anyone or any group. I understand conspiracy theorists may never accept that, but those who know me know my truth.
Max
Alan sent me your letter last week. I told him to respond that we always welcomed letters to the editor, though it's best if they were limited to 250 words. I'll accept guest columns, but I have room to run them very rarely, which makes it hard to open the door wide, particularly to a regularly series. But I'm happy to consider anything you want to offer.
Gary
I'll follow these directions and submit for fair consideration.
Max
I'll follow these directions and submit for fair consideration.
Max
There are many things on which I'd be happy to discuss and debate in your note -- but just let me say first that citing turnout for an unopposed seat isn't particularly persuasive. There was only one contested seat and no millage in the last LR election. Voter turnout is meaningless in such a situation. We've seen some pretty good turnouts in a couple of hotly contested elections, including one in which the chamber took a deep interest.
Gary
Still, 1.6%? That's 3,651 out of 224,109 registered votes in Pulaski County. In the hotly contested Nellums/Daugherty race, only 644 total votes were cast. There are no records online for the 2009 election, as all those races were uncontested. However, in 2008, with two contested races in Little Rock, only 1,420 people voted, 563 in Zone 5 and 857 in Zone 1.
"Pretty good" is in the eyes of the beholder. In primary and general elections, we make it as easy as possible for folks to vote: 1) early voting, 2) many polling places, 3) other "magnet" races. For schools, we have none of that, which makes the elections dominated by the interest groups with the most to gain from a disenfranchised and disengaged electorate.
I'm not convinced that elected boards are the best way to deliver world-class public education to all students. But that's the system we have, so we have to make the best of it.
Source: http://www.votepulaski.net/
Max
Still, 1.6%? That's 3,651 out of 224,109 registered votes in Pulaski County. In the hotly contested Nellums/Daugherty race, only 644 total votes were cast. There are no records online for the 2009 election, as all those races were uncontested. However, in 2008, with two contested races in Little Rock, only 1,420 people voted, 563 in Zone 5 and 857 in Zone 1.
"Pretty good" is in the eyes of the beholder. In primary and general elections, we make it as easy as possible for folks to vote: 1) early voting, 2) many polling places, 3) other "magnet" races. For schools, we have none of that, which makes the elections dominated by the interest groups with the most to gain from a disenfranchised and disengaged electorate.
I'm not convinced that elected boards are the best way to deliver world-class public education to all students. But that's the system we have, so we have to make the best of it.
Source: http://www.votepulaski.net/
Max
There's a long history to a separate date for school elections in Arkansas. I'm not really committed one way or another, but I do know there's been a long line of attempts to change it, most often from people who think it would make it easier to defeat tax increases.
Gary
I'm the son of a 33-year superintendent of a rural school district. Our neighbors in Mountain Home, where he was principal, were retirees from Chicago who moved there for, among other things, the low taxes. So I am well versed in the philosophy behind low voter turnout increasing the odds of passing millages.
My argument would be, as in any election, if a district relies on low voter turnout, it is not effectively making its case to the people, which further diminishes public attention/investment in the public schools. It might work in the short-term, but the long-term disinterest and apathy by the larger population are devastating to a public district.
Property owners have left and are leaving the Little Rock School District in droves. In my view, increasing the participation would be the only way to increase the odds of ever passing a millage in Little Rock. Nobody is going to vote to increase their taxes to support a system from which they fell disengaged, disenfranchised or disinterested.
My kids have nine more years in the district. You better believe I'm all about well funded, effective schools.
Max
I'm the son of a 33-year superintendent of a rural school district. Our neighbors in Mountain Home, where he was principal, were retirees from Chicago who moved there for, among other things, the low taxes. So I am well versed in the philosophy behind low voter turnout increasing the odds of passing millages.
My argument would be, as in any election, if a district relies on low voter turnout, it is not effectively making its case to the people, which further diminishes public attention/investment in the public schools. It might work in the short-term, but the long-term disinterest and apathy by the larger population are devastating to a public district.
Property owners have left and are leaving the Little Rock School District in droves. In my view, increasing the participation would be the only way to increase the odds of ever passing a millage in Little Rock. Nobody is going to vote to increase their taxes to support a system from which they fell disengaged, disenfranchised or disinterested.
My kids have nine more years in the district. You better believe I'm all about well funded, effective schools.
Max
It is impossible for me to understand how direct representation is a bad thing. We need look no farther than the City Board and how the at-large seats have been controlled to understand that. I simply see no good that could come from moving to that system for electing school board members. John Walker argues, and I think he's right, that the at-large seats in school elections end up having a discriminatory impact and tend to be unconstitutional as applied.
Gary
Letting an incumbent school board determine how the people will be represented is akin to letting a city council determine if it will be City Manager or Mayor Council. Or the legislature deciding it will no longer be bicameral. The people, not those whose positions are at stake, should determine how they will be represented.
With all due respect to your and Mr. Walker's opinion, Arkansas law and the Voting Rights Act provide three options for zoned districts (those with 10% or more minority population) - 1) five zones, 2) seven zones, or 3) five zones and two at-large. I'll save the argument as to which is better after it is determined who will make that decision.
Max
Letting an incumbent school board determine how the people will be represented is akin to letting a city council determine if it will be City Manager or Mayor Council. Or the legislature deciding it will no longer be bicameral. The people, not those whose positions are at stake, should determine how they will be represented.
With all due respect to your and Mr. Walker's opinion, Arkansas law and the Voting Rights Act provide three options for zoned districts (those with 10% or more minority population) - 1) five zones, 2) seven zones, or 3) five zones and two at-large. I'll save the argument as to which is better after it is determined who will make that decision.
Max
I applaud your interest in children. How changing the date of school elections or the zones from which board members are elected would benefit them is lost on me. In Little Rock particularly, you'll be playing with fire on school elections. Thanks to the Chamber and others' incessant criticism, an already troubled system is held in ever lower esteem, oftentimes without good reason in my opinion. We need not hold millage elections here for a decade or so if they are contested on the primary ballot, I'm afraid to say.
Gary
I truly believe most everybody has the ends in common - world-class education and experience for all students. It's just those pesky means where we differ. Forget esteem, look at the results. The Little Rock School District is in an emergency, while the leadership and people are in perpetual denial. While the district and Arkansas Department of Education trumpet trending gains, 40% (over 10,000) of our Little Rock students annually are deemed not proficient in math, literacy and science. Our students need immediate triage to make sure, at the very least, all are reading at grade level. What we're doing is not working, and tinkering around the edges has not produced results.
No community can be consistently competitive globally without a high performing public school system. The models are out there. We know it can be done. But while the board and community are fiddling, Rome is burning. I'm simply trying to take a macro approach to macro problems.
While I understand parents with blinders on when it comes to their own children, what about those kids with no advocates? For years, in the name of equity, the district has protected the public offices and employment of adults, while every year, over 10,000 of our most vulnerable are denied the very education which will empower them to participate in the world's widening meritocracy. Their futures are being sacrificed for adults' present.
Max
Nobody is prohibited from voting in school elections. Pulaski County Special voters have demonstrated quite clearly through the years that they know how to get to the polls on special elections, both to defeat the millage and toss out school board members they don't like. Blaming it on the date of the election seems to me to pretty broadly indict the voters. And to infer from that that there might some benefit in having a bunch of disinterested, not very intelligent people making the voting decisions in elections in which more vote out of habit or greater interest in one race or the other.
Gary
I addressed moving the election date earlier. The broad numbers (or percentages) over the last school elections don't support your assertion.
Which is more indicting of the voters, my support for more representative democracy or your stereotyping the 98.4% of registered voters in Pulaski County who did not vote in the last school election as "a bunch disinterested, not very intelligent people making the voting decisions in elections in which more vote out of habit or greater interest in one race or the other?"
That smacks of the elitism about which you rail.
I recognize your job is not to report, but to, with your opinions, be a provacateur. And for that you have a strong following. My wish is that we all break out of our preconceived notions and dogma and be real progressives on what I believe is the greatest issue facing our community.
This discussion is important, worthy and time sensitive. Please accept my invitation to broaden it in the public forum of your choosing instead of our simply picking apart each other's writings.
As always, thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
GaryI addressed moving the election date earlier. The broad numbers (or percentages) over the last school elections don't support your assertion.
Which is more indicting of the voters, my support for more representative democracy or your stereotyping the 98.4% of registered voters in Pulaski County who did not vote in the last school election as "a bunch disinterested, not very intelligent people making the voting decisions in elections in which more vote out of habit or greater interest in one race or the other?"
That smacks of the elitism about which you rail.
I recognize your job is not to report, but to, with your opinions, be a provacateur. And for that you have a strong following. My wish is that we all break out of our preconceived notions and dogma and be real progressives on what I believe is the greatest issue facing our community.
This discussion is important, worthy and time sensitive. Please accept my invitation to broaden it in the public forum of your choosing instead of our simply picking apart each other's writings.
As always, thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
No comments:
Post a Comment