EDITORIALS

Competition works

A case study in local education

OF COURSE Little Rock’s school board would oppose a possible new charter school in the western part of the city. Did anybody really expect anything else?

Of course Little Rock’s school board would vote to oppose a charter school that would go up on Rahling Road in West Little Rock, where it might draw almost 500 students, most of them from poor families. Can’t have that. Give poor folks a choice and they might not accept whatever Little Rock’s school board decides is good enough for them.

Of course Little Rock’s school board would vote against a charter school that promises to provide individual instruction for every student-and encourage the development of character and leadership in its students. Who ever heard of kids from poor families who would make good candidates for that kind of schooling? Let ’em accept whatever the school board gives them and stop trying for something better.

“We are seeking to provide an excellent public education where none exists,” one father said Thursday evening at the board’s latest meeting. So of course Little Rock’s school board would vote against such a charter school. Or maybe any charter school where students and teachers have entirely too much freedom to aim for excellence.

What, you thought that public education should focus on what’s best for the students? Don’t be silly. Charter schools might be public schools, but they use money that local school boards would rather keep on their own books-the better to pay for all that patronage at district HQ. Not to mention all the deadwood in the system-like the teachers who are sleep-walking to retirement. And anybody else who’s got enough pull to get a job in the Little Rock School District.

It turns out all the talk about a “new” school board in Little Rock, one that’s reform-minded and innovative, may be just that: talk. And only talk. Because last Thursday, the board voted-unanimously-to oppose this proposed charter school.

The good news is that Little Rock’s school board doesn’t get to make the final call on which charter schools are approved and which are not. The state’s Department of Education will make that decision. Here’s hoping it shows more interest in Little Rock’s kids and their education than this local school board has done.

This charter school, which would be called the Quest Middle School, would be managed by an outfit titled Responsive Education Solutions out of an exotic place called “Texas.” It has an excellent reputation in that state, and it’s branching out. Naturally, one of its first stops would be a better, greener neighboring state. But it’ll have to overcome Arkansas’ educational bureaucracy first. And that can be quite a challenge.

Fortunately, the folks running Responsive Ed have a little experience at taking on the educationist bureaucracy. They’ve managed to get charter schools approved for more than 60 different locations. Here’s hoping they get one more win. It would be kind of important for hundreds of students in Little Rock, and their futures.

FOR JUST a wee bit of irony, note that the same school board that voted against supporting the new Quest School charter voted-the very same night-to buy some land out in West Little Rock for a new middle school. Why? Because the neighborhood has needed such a school for more than a decade. Parents have been begging for a new middle school there. For years and years.

So why does the school board decide now is a good time to put one up?

Could it be because this new Quest School would be popular? Because it would give families what they’ve been asking for after all these years?

If this Texas bunch hadn’t applied for a charter school in West Little Rock, the local school board could have continued to ignore that part of the city-just as it’s done for years.

For the record, the same parents who support the charter school also support the school board’s building a new school in West Little Rock. Boy, talk about a contrast between giving people choices and the way this stuck-in-the-past school board operates.

Sometimes charter schools will push local school boards into doing the right thing even before those charter schools have opened their doors. Case in point: Little Rock’s school board. Now if only it were willing to compete with this charter school rather than try to block it, all would benefit by the kind of competition that has benefited every other aspect of American life from business to sports.

Oh, if only the biggest obstacle to better public education in Little Rock weren’t Little Rock’s school board. Imagine the progress that could be made.

Editorial, Pages 14 on 10/29/2013

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