Following the money on the Walton-Hutchinson takeover of Little Rock schools
Posted By Max Brantley on Sun, Mar 15, 2015 at 9:19 AM
It's not yet clear when the final House Education Committeebattle will be fought on HB 1733 to allow the state to privatize any or all of a public school district judged to be in academic distress.
It's monumental legislation that would make all school teachers and administrators fire-at-will employees without due process rights. It would destroy one of the two last remaining teacher union contracts in Arkansas. It allows for the permanent end of democratic control of a school district or those portions of it privatized. It would capture property tax millage voted by taxpayers for specific purposes, including buildings, and give them to private operators. It would allow seizure of buildings for private operators at no cost. CORRECTION: I'd originally written that Little Rock was the last collective bargaining district in the star. Fort Smith classroom teachers still negotiate with the Fort Smith School District. An anti-union organization the Waltons fund, the Arkansas State Teachers Association, has spent a great deal of money trying to solicit members in Fort Smith, a teacher there reports.
This bill is the work of the Walton Family Foundation. People the Walton money supports — lobbyistsGary Newton of Arkansas Learns, Scott Smith of the Arkansas Public School Research Foundation, Kathy Smith of the Walton Family Foundation and Laurie Lee of Arkansas Parents for School Choice — are the leading lobbyists. Smith has been quoted by others as saying he's the primary author (his organization gets $3 million a year from the Waltons), but it follows similar legislation introduced in other states, with poor to disastrous results (New Orleans).
(Concurrently and coincidentally, the Walton Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation are sponsoring a school study in Little Rock by the Boston Consulting Group, an outfit that has studied and recommended mass privatization in other cities.)
The goal is to make the Little Rock School District a laboratory for the pet education aims of the Waltons, who own the University of Arkansas, particularly the department ginning out propaganda in behalf of this bill. Gov. Asa Hutchinson is fully on board. He's been resisting a solid plan to put competent people in charge in Little Rock and moving on fixing the six schools on which the entire district of 48 schools was placed in academic distress. His plan is to pass a law to overcome Johnny Key's lack of a teacher certificate, master's degree and 10 years education experience and become state Education Commissioner. Key would then find a Walton-favored outfit to run the six schools at issue and be poised to take over as many others as the Waltons deem necessary.
It's been a long battle, but money does tend to win out. The last firewall is the Democratic Party's capture of half the seats on the House Education Committee. Can the 10 Democratic members be held firm against the Walton millions? Is there a possibility that the intervention of school superintendents against the bill (because it puts every single district in similar peril of loss of local control) could peel off a vital Republican vote or two? It will be high drama when the day comes.
Meanwhile, here are some Republican votes to watch. I'd predict they wouldn't stray from the pro-Walton voting column.
Reps. Bruce Cozart, Bill Gossage and Charlotte Douglas and Sens. Jane English and Bart Hester.Cozart is chair of House Education. English is chair of Senate Education. Douglas and Gossage also serve on House Education. Hester? Wherever an ignoble cause can be found, you can usually find Bart Hester.
Last August, according to lobbyist expense filings, they all got expenses-paid trips to an "education reform" meeting in Washington courtesy of Laurie Lee's School Choice client. The amount reported for each legislator's plane ticket and Capitol Hilton stay was $1,982.60.
(Yes, I checked to see if all the legislators had reported their free trips. When legislators appear in official capacities and get more than $150 worth of expenses, they are supposed to report it. All but Douglas' Following the money on the Walton-Hutchinson takeover of Little Rock schools | Arkansas Blog | Arkansas news, politics, opinion, restaurants, music, movies and art:
It's monumental legislation that would make all school teachers and administrators fire-at-will employees without due process rights. It would destroy one of the two last remaining teacher union contracts in Arkansas. It allows for the permanent end of democratic control of a school district or those portions of it privatized. It would capture property tax millage voted by taxpayers for specific purposes, including buildings, and give them to private operators. It would allow seizure of buildings for private operators at no cost. CORRECTION: I'd originally written that Little Rock was the last collective bargaining district in the star. Fort Smith classroom teachers still negotiate with the Fort Smith School District. An anti-union organization the Waltons fund, the Arkansas State Teachers Association, has spent a great deal of money trying to solicit members in Fort Smith, a teacher there reports.
This bill is the work of the Walton Family Foundation. People the Walton money supports — lobbyistsGary Newton of Arkansas Learns, Scott Smith of the Arkansas Public School Research Foundation, Kathy Smith of the Walton Family Foundation and Laurie Lee of Arkansas Parents for School Choice — are the leading lobbyists. Smith has been quoted by others as saying he's the primary author (his organization gets $3 million a year from the Waltons), but it follows similar legislation introduced in other states, with poor to disastrous results (New Orleans).
(Concurrently and coincidentally, the Walton Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation are sponsoring a school study in Little Rock by the Boston Consulting Group, an outfit that has studied and recommended mass privatization in other cities.)
The goal is to make the Little Rock School District a laboratory for the pet education aims of the Waltons, who own the University of Arkansas, particularly the department ginning out propaganda in behalf of this bill. Gov. Asa Hutchinson is fully on board. He's been resisting a solid plan to put competent people in charge in Little Rock and moving on fixing the six schools on which the entire district of 48 schools was placed in academic distress. His plan is to pass a law to overcome Johnny Key's lack of a teacher certificate, master's degree and 10 years education experience and become state Education Commissioner. Key would then find a Walton-favored outfit to run the six schools at issue and be poised to take over as many others as the Waltons deem necessary.
It's been a long battle, but money does tend to win out. The last firewall is the Democratic Party's capture of half the seats on the House Education Committee. Can the 10 Democratic members be held firm against the Walton millions? Is there a possibility that the intervention of school superintendents against the bill (because it puts every single district in similar peril of loss of local control) could peel off a vital Republican vote or two? It will be high drama when the day comes.
Meanwhile, here are some Republican votes to watch. I'd predict they wouldn't stray from the pro-Walton voting column.
Reps. Bruce Cozart, Bill Gossage and Charlotte Douglas and Sens. Jane English and Bart Hester.Cozart is chair of House Education. English is chair of Senate Education. Douglas and Gossage also serve on House Education. Hester? Wherever an ignoble cause can be found, you can usually find Bart Hester.
Last August, according to lobbyist expense filings, they all got expenses-paid trips to an "education reform" meeting in Washington courtesy of Laurie Lee's School Choice client. The amount reported for each legislator's plane ticket and Capitol Hilton stay was $1,982.60.
(Yes, I checked to see if all the legislators had reported their free trips. When legislators appear in official capacities and get more than $150 worth of expenses, they are supposed to report it. All but Douglas' Following the money on the Walton-Hutchinson takeover of Little Rock schools | Arkansas Blog | Arkansas news, politics, opinion, restaurants, music, movies and art:
