On the day North Little Rock voters chose to compete by overwhelmingly approving a game-changing, over quarter billion dollar capital investment in their 9,000-student public school district, the true leaders of the Little Rock School District (Attorneys Heller, Fendley and Walker) chose not to compete, but instead, blame others for their abject failure.
Because even they must know that the chances of passing a comparable (or any) millage in Little Rock is nil, don't be surprised if Little Rock's tricky trial triumvirate next target the will of the North Little Rock people as an unfair, discriminatory advantage. Excellence be damned, when it stands in the way of sameness.
In addition to ending new charter schools, Little Rock's attorneys seek to ban forensic audits of the district's books and consolidating, annexing or reconstituting the three Pulaski County districts.
What the Phils (Kaplan and Lyon)?! Didn't this lawsuit begin in the early '80s with Little Rock's suing North Little Rock and Pulaski County for consolidation?
And show of hands - How many Little Rock School Board members even read the 1,000+ pages before they were filed with District Judge Marshall?
In another outstanding report, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Cynthia Howell wrote about Little Rock's attorneys:
"They also said that the attorney general and 'other state actors' including the University of Arkansas departments in Fayetteville and 'private persons and entities have engaged in an orchestrated public relations campaign designed to discredit desegregation efforts in Pulaski County generally and LRSD specifically that has created something like the 'hysterical political atmosphere' surrounding desegregation reminiscent of the 1960s'."
To quote Seth and Amy, "Really?!"
So, while Little Rock attorneys supplant elected leaders, foment their conspiracy theories, and chase their latest Boo Radley, North Little Rock went to work.
If they think charters, the attorney general, state actors, our flagship university, private persons and entities, forensic audits, and potential consolidation are causing students to flee the district, wait 'til they get a load of what those shiny new North Little Rock public schools pull from the south.
While my money's in Little Rock, if I were a betting man, it would be on the North shore.
To borrow from Ross Perot, there are about to be two giant sucking sounds in Central Arkansas. One from North Little Rock pulling students, parents and citizens into their district. And the other, well, you know.
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