Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said during a meeting with press on Monday he supports the state Board of Education’s decision to return the Little Rock School District to local control with limits, and that he believes an alternative to the district employees’ union is sufficient.
During the meeting, Hutchinson emphasized the state’s responsibility for ensuring equity in education. He cited the 2002 Lake View v. Huckabee decision, which ruled all public schoolchildren must have ”a substantially equal opportunity for an adequate education.”
“There are those who want the state to abandon its Constitutional and moral responsibility to the students,” he said. “The state Board of Education made it clear it will not do that. It is a state responsibility. It has been given to us.”
Hutchinson said he supports the return of the district to local control but largely avoided commenting on the criteria for returning schools to a locally elected school board.
The governor rejected criticism that returning some schools in the district to local control while maintaining state control over others would resegregate the district. The decision won’t be based on geography, he said, but what the state deems necessary under its constitutional responsibilities to students.
“I absolutely reject the proposition,” he said. “It is not based in fact and it is really trying to resurrect old history that has no application.”
[Video not showing up above? Click here to view » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns0MNSa_cb4]
With regard to the proposal set forth last week that the state end recognition of the Little Rock Education Association as the contract bargaining agent, and establish a personnel policies committee in the district that would be similar to committees that are required by law for all other school districts in the state, Hutchinson said he found the proposal to be “a sufficient influence on personnel policies for the future.”
However, he declined to comment on whether he supported ending recognition of the union, saying it wasn’t his decision to make.
"I think you have to look at what is best for the future of the Little Rock School District and the students, and to improve education here," the governor said.
Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.