To the chagrin of a handful of school districts in Arkansas--and to the delight, perhaps even elation, of many families in this same state--a judge has ruled on the Arkansas School Choice Act. And that judge, a federal one, has given hope to dozens and dozens of families. Call the ruling a parting of the clouds. Yes, it's that important.
Susan O. Hickey, a United States district judge, told four school districts to comply with the law. Or, as the lawyers would put it, she declined requests that they be exempted from the law.
This particular state law, as passed by representatives of We the People, allows kids in failing schools to transfer out of them. Imagine that: allowing kids to get the best education their parents' tax dollars can buy. Which the families of more than 130 kids in the Hope, Camden Fairview, Lafayette County and Junction City school districts set out to do.
Of course, their local school districts set out to keep them from doing any such thing. State dollars follow kids from school to school, so a school rated F by the state would still try to keep as many kids as possible. So what if the students weren't learning? There's money in them-thar kids. So the school districts wanted exemptions to the law. And went to court.
In four orders released Wednesday, Her Honor Susan O. Hickey noted that none of the four districts had satisfied the "burden of making a clear showing that [the districts] would suffer irreparable harm" by losing the students.
Irreparable harm. Now there's a term. And standard of proof. What the local districts might call irreparable harm by losing a few dollars per student, we'd call a rounding error. Here's a better definition of irreparable harm: sending kids to failing schools when they and their parents know a better one is just down the road.
Some might argue: Well, what if all the kids in a failing school tried to transfer? Our answer would be: So what? The question we have is why only 130-some-odd kids tried to get out of these schools? Perhaps many parents just didn't know they had other options.
Now these four districts will have to comply with the law--at least until they get another court date to argue another point. Until then, these kids and their families will have a shot at a better future. On this matter, Arkansans should take the wins where we find them.
Editorial on 08/12/2018