As some of you know, the Arkansas Department of Education voted to take over the Little Rock School District because six of 48 schools were in "academic distress."
This essentially means that the locally school board has been dismissed and the superintendent will answer to state officials.
Why take over the whole district over one-eighth of the schools? Other states haven't come in and taken over entire school districts like Arkansas does (previous examples include Helena-West Helena and Pulaski County Special School District).
Well, we might have some answers this coming week. According to the Arkansas Times:
Notice apparently went out to Little Rock schools today about a focus group meeting with the Walton Family Foundation and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation "in conjunction with the Boston Consulting Group."
According to a quote from a memo provided to a school district volunteer parent:
Dennis Glasgow, the associate superintendent for accountability, provided information about the meeting. The groups want four groups of 8 to 10 participants for 45-minute sessions on Feb. 10 "to discuss pressing education issues
Part of the
Walton Family Foundation's mission is to provide grants to startup charter school developers. Essentially, they give money to companies that aim to make public schools publicly ran. Charter schools are sold as the way to turn failing schools around, but in reality, the
results have been mixed at best.
Now, whether there's a need for changes in the American school system is a debate all in itself. It could be part of the problem is that schools are largely controlled at local and state level. Or we could say "one size doesn't fit all" since there are several different ways people learn.
But the charter push in the US seems largely ideologically driven. It's like a privatization for privatization's sake. When things are ideologically driven, people will try to drive square pegs into round holes over and over until the peg falls apart.
J. Robert Hall is a journalist from Arkansas. He welcomes readers to friend him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.