Administrative funding for the Department of Education was held up in committee Tuesday by Senate Democrats upset over the decision not to renew the contract of Little Rock School District Superintendent Baker Kurrus.
Little Rock Democrats Sen. Linda Chesterfield and Sen. Joyce Elliott both praised Kurrus' work leading the school district, which began after the district was taken over by the state in January 2015 because several schools were classified as being in academic distress.
Education Commissioner Johnny Key formally announced Tuesday that Bentonville Superintendent Michael Poore would succeed Kurrus.
After a meeting of the Joint Budget Committee on Tuesday, Chesterfield said she used her position to hold up an appropriations bill for the education department, which includes funding for the state Board of Education. Public schools are funded in a separate appropriations bill.
"To do this at this time is particularly tone deaf," Chesterfield said of the switch away from Kurrus. "I don't know what the commissioner's agenda is, but the superintendent's agenda must be advocating for Little Rock."
Both Chesterfield and Elliot said that they believed the decision not to renew Kurrus' contract was made because of arguments Kurrus made to the school board against a further expansion of charter schools in Little Rock.
"If you can make a case with me that what Johnny Key has done right now as our school board is advocating for the LRSD, I would really like to hear it, because it hasn't happened," Elliott said.
The senators stopped short of threatening to withhold their consent to an expected workaround plan to pass funding for the state's private-option Medicaid expansion supported by Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
"I am not going to throw 267,000 off health care," Chesterfield told reporters. "I also don't want to put 25,000 kids at jeopardy of being one more time jerked around."
Chesterfield and Elliot met with Hutchinson on Tuesday to discuss their issues with Kurrus' departure after the committee meeting, according to the governor, who said the senators expressed "frustration" about the timing and communication of the announcement.
Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.