Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson is trying to turn back the clock and bring back segregation within public schools, but teachers and parents are not going for it.
On Thursday morning, the Little Rock Education Association went on strike, protesting a state proposal that would re-segregate the city’s schools. The one-day strike was authorized a month ago, according to LREA president Teresa Knapp Gordon.
Back in 2015, Arkansas state board of education became the controlling entity over the Little Rock School District. State officials claimed it was because of the district’s low test standardized test scores. However, the teachers of that school district noted back in October that the low test scores are a result of the poverty-stricken area; they also mentioned that they’d be concerned if state gained control. The teachers were right about their worries because, in September, state officials proposed limiting local control to the district. With that move, that also decided to reconstitute the district, dividing it in half.
Higher-income, predominately white schools would fall under local control, but lower-income schools in historically black neighborhoods would stay under state control, according to New York magazine.
After educators called the state out for the backwards proposal, the state decided to amend it. However, the union says the new proposal still includes discriminatory and problematic terms. One of the State’s options is to change struggling schools into community schools that would benefit from additional “health and social services,” according to a memorandum of understanding the union shared with New York. The potential community schools would work similarly to traditional community schools with resources like counseling or GED courses for adult students as well as the average classes. The institutions could possibly have different policies and disciplinary guidelines, as well.
It was only 62 years ago that the Little Rock Nine broke the mold in the segregated Little Rock school district. The city just gained its first Black mayor last year, and it was only in 2014 that the school district settled an open desegregation lawsuit.
