Wake Up Little Rock!

In 1957, nine courageous students risked their lives to enter the Little Rock School District. Fifty-four years later, 10,000 students annually risk their futures because they can't get out.

The continued failure of public education in Pulaski County, and specifically Little Rock, is our community's greatest emergency. It is destroying the City of Little Rock's resident middle class, leaving a city of largely trapped poor, those with means for private education, a shrinking percentage of parents with the initiative to make the best of a dysfunctional system, and refugees in a limited number of charter schools.

We cannot keep, attract or grow business when its workers' children are not being educated.

We cannot keep and grow the tax base when working families' students cannot receive a quality education.

We cannot sustain the economic viability and competitiveness of the community when it fails 10,000 students a year.

Whether or not you have or had children in Little Rock public schools, this is no longer just a "public school" issue. If you live and/or work in Little Rock, it's your issue. If you live and/or work in a community that benefits from proximity to Little Rock, it's your issue. And that issue is the very survival of our community and our state's capital.

Amidst all the haranguing, handwringing and hopelessness, there are actions we could/should immediately take as a community to accept no less than excellence from our public schools.

• In every action, the Little Rock School District should be mission-focused on the world-class education of all students.
• The Little Rock School District's annual budget is more than twice that of the City of Little Rock. At $350 million, that's approximately $14,000 per student. Even if state desegregation funding were immediately ended, money would not an issue; it's how it's spent.
• In 2010-11, 39% of tested students were not proficient in math. 37% were not proficient in literacy, and 74% were not proficient in science. Further, five of five tested grades performed worse in math than they did the year before, while two of five tested worse in literacy. By the time students reached the eighth grade, 58% were not proficient in math. The pattern is clear: the more years a student spends in the Little Rock School District, the more likely he/she will become not proficient in math and/or literacy.

• Implement the strategic plan.
• In March 2010, after nearly a year of intensive work, a 14-member commission released a Strategic Plan for the Little Rock School District identifying actions that "must be taken" in six important areas: 1) Ambitious, eye-popping goals; 2) Research proven strategies for attaining our goals; 3) Adequate and effective funding for our schools; 4) Recruitment and retention of a high quality staff; 5) Data and Accountability; and 6) Effective, performance driven leadership. A year-and-a-half later, even with a third-party consultant being paid tens of thousands of dollars to implement, the plan remains largely shelved. Now, only three-and-a-half years remain to achieve the five-year goals outlined in the Plan.

• Reform central administration to make most effective and efficient use of taxpayers' investment.

• Empower principals to run their schools, then hold them accountable for performance and achievement.

• Reward, retain and recruit exceptional teachers and immediately remove ineffective ones. 
• Starting Little Rock School District teachers who are members of the Little Rock Education Association rank 92nd in Arkansas (when factoring in annual dues), while non-union teachers rank 78th. Little Rock starting teachers should rank first in Arkansas and favorably compare to our competitor regions so we may attract the best and brightest from around the country, where "last in, first out" policies are laying off innovative and effective young teachers by the thousands.
• With 1,426 members out of 2,222 total teachers (as of January 2010), union members pay $1,026,720 million collectively in annual dues. And yet, the Little Rock School District pays the union president a full annual salary, not to be in the classroom, but to lead the union. The union can afford to pay its own president.
• The Little Rock School District collects union dues through payroll deduction then sends the funds to the union. It's the union's money. It should be independently responsible for the cost and labor to collect it. 
• In the spirit of Arkansas's constitutional right to work law, any Little Rock School District teacher should be allowed to join or quit the union at any time. Currently, a teacher may join when they want, but there is a narrow two-to-three week window in June to quit. If missed, teachers are stuck with another year in dues. 
• Tenure should be eliminated. With origins in colleges and universities, where tenure is still earned, it has been bastardized in the public schools and given to anyone who lasts three years, regardless of performance.

• Close, consolidate and construct schools and facilities to equitably serve the population.
• Currently, all seven Little Rock School District middle schools are within 3.6 miles of another middle school. Five of seven middle schools are within 7.8 miles of each other, and two middle schools are only 1.6 miles apart.
• The two zones with the least population (1 and 2) have three of the seven middle schools.
  
• The most densely populated and fastest growing zone in the district (4) has no middle school. Neither does one with stable population (5).
• Schools - elementary, middle, high - should be clustered in logical, proximate communities of interest to foster parental and community involvement and support.

• Offer, support and celebrate competitive extra-curricular activities and achievement in the arts, athletics, communications, governance, professional development and public service.
• The cover of Arkansas Sports 360 Annual Football Preview featured two Razorbacks, both of whom were from Central Arkansas - Jake Bequette and Joe Adams. Neither were products of our public schools. Little Rock's proud football tradition has been decimated from inattention. Behind Drake Hawkins' leadership and Verizon Wireless' and others' generosity, there is now new, year-round turf at Central High's storied Quigley Stadium, but the locker rooms have been so neglected for so long, players can't even shower there. Sports and extracurricular activities foster school and community spirit and support and provide a fitting incentive for academic achievement and accountability. They are complementary to academics, not contradictory. It's the model upon which Dr. Fitz Hill is transforming Arkansas Baptist College and its neighborhood.

• Communicate clearly, consistently and completely with the public regarding the district's successes, opportunities and deficiencies.
• The Little Rock School District spent tens of thousands of dollars on a search firm, engaged the community in a months-long process, and yet, only brought in one superintendent "finalist" in to interview. With no reasonable explanation, the entire process was thwarted when the district ignored its consultants' recommendation and the consensus of the larger community, and instead, hired the interim superintendent, who did not go through any of the formal application process.

• Compete for students within and without the district without litigating.
• Attorneys for the Little Rock School District should take no action unless directed by a majority public vote of the board.

• After redrawing zones based on the 2010 census, hold new elections for all board members in 2012 and draw for terms.
• Because of population changes in the 2010 census, all seven zones of the Little Rock School District will have to be redrawn. This means that, without new elections, over 5,000 citizens will be represented by someone for whom they did not have the opportunity to vote.
• Follow the 'STEPS FOR CURRENTLY ZONED SCHOOL DISTRICTS,' as issued in the February 8, 2011 memorandum from the Arkansas School Board Association (ASBA) and developed from talks with the Governor's office, Attorney General's office, Secretary of State's office, Arkansas Association (AAEA), and the Arkansas Department of Education and hold new elections.

And here's what can be done at the state level:

• Change school board elections from September to the General Election to assure maximum citizen participation.

• In accordance with A.C.A. 6-13-631, in compliance with the Voting Rights Act, give the people, not the incumbent school board, the power by election to determine how they will be represented: 1) five zones, 2) seven zones or 3) five zones and two at-large.

The Little Rock School District is like a crawdad - it moves backward, attacks anything that tries to stop it, and is oblivious when it's being boiled alive.

In 2011, courageous citizens and parents can save Little Rock by taking back their public schools from the entrenched, self-serving special interests of adults, and get about the business of immediately educating all students, no matter their means or family circumstances. Anything less, and students will get what they don't deserve, while the citizens who fiddled or slept will get exactly what their actions (or inactions) have wrought - the end of Little Rock.



I believe that those parents and citizens and leaders willing to endure the inevitable slings and arrows from those with the most to lose can still prevail. But only if we stand up and trumpet  the truth at every opportunity, even if that means being voted down six to one or five to two or four to three at board meetings.