This isn't the first time the schools have sicced lawyers on kids. And the papers say it won't be the last: Kids in Lafayette County and Junction City are next, lawyers promise.
But first things first: The kids in Hope and Camden Fairview are the target this week.
The backdrop: The state of Arkansas, through its representatives in the Ledge as put there by We the People, passed a law to make it easier for public school students, and their families, to switch schools. With a number of public schools failing their charges, our betters have decided to allow kids to flee the worst ones by establishing the Arkansas School Choice Act. Under that current law, a family can opt out of the local school and go to another one down the road, should that school provide a better shot at an education, and thus life.
Of course, the failing districts would oppose such a just and honorable law. After all, state money follows the kids. Every kid that chooses another district, that's money lost! Which tells you everything you need to know about the priorities of some adults in the public school system.
Several dozen kids signed up to transfer out of Hope's school district and Camden Fairview's school district. According to the database on arkansas-online.com, Camden Fairview High School posted a D grade during the 2016-17 school year, and Hope High School had a big fat F.
Those districts have sued to keep the kids in those schools anyway. The law is an ass, right?
Attorneys want temporary restraining orders keeping the kids in the failing schools and out of better schools down the way. Or they'd like a preliminary injunction doing the same. In the alternative to issuing orders to the state, the attorneys have asked a federal judge to keep the districts from following the law.
Or maybe the judge could just order up some new studies on the matter. Or postpone the next court date and decision to, say, December--of 2020. Or anything else to delay, delay, delay. That is SOP for people in the education establishment who want to keep students in the status forever quo.
Lawyers say they'll get around to filing motions for Lafayette County and Junction City "in the coming days." And we don't doubt it.
Earlier this year, all four of those districts had taken their cases to the state's Department of Ed, asking for exemptions to the law. The state said no--let the kids go where they can learn. That's when the lawsuits started to fly.
For a bit of perspective, a total of 15 students from Camden Fairview wanted to transfer--out of a total of 2,477 kids in the district. And over at Hope, 69 students want to leave--out of a total of 2,247 in the district. We're not talking about a mass walkout here.
But what if we were? If 100 percent of the students in these districts wanted to get out of going to high school there, what would that say about the schools?
The districts argue that allowing students to transfer will result in "white flight" in those districts and towns. But white kids aren't the only ones who have the opportunity to leave failing schools. Certainly nothing in the new transfer law says anything like that. Besides, real white flight has folks moving out of poor districts and into better ones--if they have the means. Or sending their kids to private schools. The transfer law, however, keeps Arkansas students in public schools.
But logic, entreaties, petitions--even the futures of so many young people in Arkansas--are no match for money, which is too often the No. 1 priority for school districts. And those districts will go to court to keep as much of it as possible.
"Hope."
"Fairview."
In this case, those districts provide neither.
Let's hope a judge does better by Arkansas' youth.
Editorial on 07/20/2018