One of the best things we as a people can do is to invest in our future. Not only for our children's sake, but also for the preservation and strengthening of proven strategies that will improve lives to come.
One way to accomplish this is to improve public education. While there are some who prefer a private setting for their children, I believe they would agree with me that it should be the best it can be as well. I truly do not believe there is one person who doesn't think a quality school is not paramount to building a solid foundation for a quality life. If I'm wrong with that thought, that would be fodder for another day's writing.
One fact we can agree on is that 94 percent of Arkansas children attend our public schools. Another fact is that they have never had adequate funding and/or appropriation of that funding to be able to provide what students need for a quality school. How can a school be expected to be able to provide without the resources it needs to do so? It's not a fair comparison when they never had a chance to begin without being fully funded.
A public school is an entity that is there not for profit of money, but for profit of learning, growing, and thriving. I'm sure you've heard of the phrase "your checkbook register tells your priorities." Now, I know that I may be the last person on Earth still using a checkbook register, but you get the drift. What we spend our money on shows what we care about. Shouldn't our legacy show that we cared about our children?
My concern here is the increasing amount of public money spent to send children to a for-profit school instead of a public school. With recent legislation, we have had the biggest investment ever to dismantle public education here in Arkansas. That means our tax dollars are lining the pockets of those in business to make money off our kids. That just doesn't add up for me.
If folks want to start a private school and make a profit, that's their business, not mine. So, I don't want my tax dollars going to their business. If folks want to send their kids to that private school instead of a public tax dollar-funded public school, so be it. But that is their choice, and it should be their private money paying for it. It just makes sense that our public tax dollars should be spent on public schools.
That brings us to why we are here; me writing and you reading. I am the president of the Arkansas Education Association. We are the state affiliate of the largest worker union in the country--the National Education Association. Our mission is clear: to advocate for education professionals and to unite our members and the state to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world. That's it. What we do every day is to that end.
Which brings us to the Arkansas Educational Amendment of 2024, me asking you to sign the petition, and then vote for it in November. This is our chance, as the people of Arkansas, to ensure that our future improves. To give our students what they need. Sometimes we must stand up and act when our elected officials do not. This is one of those moments.
If we continue down this road of public dollars going to for-profit schools, at the very least they should have to be held accountable. With the amendment, that would be put into place. Additionally, other proven strategies would also be put into place to improve schools. Universal pre-K, after-school programs, and summer programs would be offered. For every $1 invested in pre-K, there is a return of $4.
Students within 200 percent of the federal poverty level would be able to receive wrap-around services to help them be better able to learn. Communities partner with schools to make community schools that help alleviate the issues our kids have that prevent them from being able to learn, such as hunger or lack of clothes and sleep. We would be able to provide quality special education. I'm a special education teacher, and I know all about how we have lacked the resources the state must provide to help students with disabilities. Minimum standards for academics would be put in place. Can you believe that we don't have that?
All these things are what is needed to invest in our future--in our kids.
I am not making a mind-blowing observation here. If you can read this, you know why kids need a good education. Our Legislature felt it was so important to invest millions in schools that are for someone else's profit. It makes one wonder just who is making that profit. Follow the money, and one would quickly find out.
What we need to do is to finally fully invest in the public schools that are already here serving 94 percent of our kids. Imagine what the future of Arkansas would look like if we fully funded our schools and put these proven strategies into place. One hundred percent of our kids would finally have a chance to benefit.
April Reisma, MEd., NBCT, is president of the Arkansas Education Association.