OPINION

EDITORIAL: A time for renewal

Even in the middle of winter

St. Thomas More: Why not be a teacher? You'd be a fine teacher. Perhaps even a great one.

Rich: And if I was, who would know it?

More: You, your pupils, your friends, God. Not a bad public, that.

--A Man for All Seasons

At least since the late 1990s, when the Washington, D.C., school system was trying anything to improve, there has been a sometimes unmannerly debate about reconstituting public schools. The pro-recon side allowed that 'most anything that can be done to improve the public schools, especially failing ones, should be done. And if some people lost their jobs, that's a shame. But if this were a widget factory . . . .

At which point the anti- recon types, mostly teachers, would say--correctly--that educating children is most definitely not making widgets.

Now the debate swings back to Little Rock after a tour of the east coast, San Francisco and some precincts in the Midwest. In the last year that the state of Arkansas has control of Little Rock's schools, the teachers at three high schools and an elementary school have been told to re-apply for their jobs. That is, those jobs are open, and there is no guarantee the teachers in those classrooms now will be asked back in the fall.

The state has declared virtually all jobs vacant at McClellan, J.A. Fair and Hall high schools as well as at Rockefeller Elementary. (All but Hall are closing.) The teachers there now must apply for the new openings. The debate has made its way to this page, and this column, yet again.

A wise editor once advised his editorial writers to take on the opposition's strongest arguments, not its weakest. So with the help of Google, some union bosses from the coasts, the NEA, and a couple of studies published in the last few decades, we'll try. We hope to give the other side's point of view with a heaping helping of fairness. And try to excise the snark from our counterpoints:

There is limited research on this subject.

So let's make more.

Past experience proves that reconstituting schools, by replacing all employees, doesn't always work.

We'll grant more than that. We'll grant that it doesn't work often. Mainly because the schools that are reconstituted in this way are nearly always failing schools, in the most challenging of situations. But education leaders in Little Rock can't lose another generation to the streets by being too cautious. These schools have proven that they cannot do the job. Let another principal hire his/her own teachers, and let's start again.

Reconstituting schools isn't fairy dust. There must be a more comprehensive approach.

Yes, but we must start somewhere. Certainly, let us, as a community, get children into pre-K, get their parents' help on wrap-around services, make sure all kids are fed hot meals at school, and make other inroads into the community. But the list has to start somewhere. There has got to be a Step One.

When looking back at other schools that were reconstituted, any changes for the better were difficult to sustain.

Yes, these are the most challenging schools. We've said that.

Any teachers you hire at these schools must believe in the turn-around, they must believe in the leadership, they must believe, period.

Yes, but last year the state's Department of Education put out an update for lawmakers. For example, at Hall High, in just one quarter, nearly half of all teachers in the "core" categories missed five days or more. At J.A. Fair, it was closer to 40 percent missing significant time. Maybe the next group of teachers will believe in what they're doing enough to not be absentee teachers. Let's give them a chance, anyway.

One study said even in private-sector companies, complete turnarounds only work a third of the time.

We'll take it! That would be thousands of kids saved in the Little Rock district. Then we can take what works and try it elsewhere.

When you fire the employees of a school, you lose experience.

That's exactly the point.

Studies say reconstitution has proven to be uneven in quality.

Isn't all education?

Evidence suggests reconstitution is risky.

More risky than losing another generation? To some of us, nothing is more risky to the future of Little Rock, and the state, than failing schools.

Surely there are even more arguments against starting over at failing schools. For some, any excuse will do. It surpasseth all understanding. Which may be the only thing their excuses have in common with the peace of God.

Speaking of redemption, this new effort, approved by the state of Arkansas and its education secretary, is a chance for recovery, for rescue, for salvation. Maybe not in the divine sense, but in the secular one. Which is very real, too. A school that is failing its students is a waste, and we don't mean of money. It's a waste of potential. It's a waste of a better future.

It's going to take bold, determined, courageous action on the part of the state's leadership to make hope a reality. That's the nature of education, and life.

Editorial on 01/23/2020

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