BENTONVILLE - A Republican candidate for governor wants to revamp the state’s education system by limiting regulations, abolishing the minimum size for school districts and increasing funding for community colleges.
Curtis Coleman, a Little Rock businessman, unveiled his education plan Wednesday morning at the Shewmaker Center at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. He then traveled to Little Rock and Jonesboro, making the same announcement in those cities.
Coleman faces former Congressman Asa Hutchinson and State Rep. Debra Hobbs, R-Rogers, in the primary election May 20. The general election is Nov. 4.
Coleman said his plan calls for legislation that will:
Limit the number and kind of programs and standards that can “be forced upon local school districts.”
Give school administrators and local school boards the right to reward high-achieving teachers and terminate under performing teachers.
Give local administrators, teachers and school boards the power to choose the curricula and standardized tests.
Give local administrators, teachers and school boards the power to choose which, if any, federal programs they want to implement in their schools.
Coleman said his plan would broaden the state’s school choice law, which he said allows “very limited” school choice within districts. (The Public School Choice Act of 2013 is Arkansas Code Annotated 6-18-1901 et seq.)
“Every parent must have the ability and liberty to rescue their children from failing schools and enroll them in a school where they can get the very best education possible,” he said.
School choice can be accomplished, Coleman said, through vouchers, education savings accounts, tax-credit scholarships and individual tax credits and deductions.
Coleman said he wants to repeal Act 60 of 2004, which required school districts to be consolidated if their enrollment drops below 350 pupils for two consecutive years.
“The current 350-student minimum enrollment is an arbitrary political threshold that is unsupported by any studies about school effectiveness,” Coleman said. “We’ve been closing some of the best schools in Arkansas and destroying their communities in the process.”
Coleman said his plan calls for rebuilding the statewide infrastructure of schools that provide technical training. The technical courses could start as early as 10th grade, he said.
The objective, said Coleman, is to produce graduates who are immediately ready to go to work and provide for their families.
“There are Arkansas businesses begging for people who can weld, operate a machine or repair a robot,” he said. “And these are great paying jobs, many far above the average pay scale in Arkansas.”
Coleman also wants to increase state funding for community colleges by $42 million a year. He says he would temporarily take $21 million per year from state allocations for four-year universities and would find another $21 million per year by reducing “administrative and oversight costs” in the state Department of Education budget.
Hobbs said Coleman’s ideas sound good.
“But I’ve been around long enough to know there are differences between theory and reality,” she said. “I like the local control idea, but I also know when we have failing schools and teachers that are not teaching, the state has to intervene. We have to be accountable and make sure our students are being taught.”
Hobbs said she doesn’t agree with Coleman’s proposal to take money from universities “to shore up”community colleges. Money for community colleges could be found elsewhere, she said.
Jon Gilmore, a spokesman for Hutchinson’s gubernatorial campaign, said the Republican candidate had no comment regarding Coleman’s education plan.
On Jan. 13, Hutchinson announced his education plan at a news conference in Springdale.
If elected governor, Hutchinson said he’ll work with the state Legislature to pass a law so computer-science courses count toward core high school graduation credit in math or science. Hutchinson said the plan could make Arkansas a national leader in technology education and job creation.
Arkansas, Pages 8 on 01/30/2014