More today from the Little Rock School District FOI request related to the University of Arkansas report intended to show that open enrollment charter schools don’t cause resegregation in the public school districts in Pulaski County. It takes a stretch to make the case. White enrollment in the districts has been declining while white enrollment in the charter schools has been rising. The charters have also taken a disproportionate number of economically advantaged kids. The report didn’t consider impact on magnet schools; it looked only at transfers from LRSD schools, not at whether the other charter students (a majority of the enrollment) might be in Pulaski schools absent the charter schools; it didn’t consider changes in racial percentages going forward in schools from which students had been lost to charters. (Gluttons for charter school punishment will want to see yesterday’s thread.)

Here’s a chain of e-mails involving Democrat-Gazette publisher Walter Hussman; Luke Gordy, hired by the Hussman-Walton-Stephens-etc. combine to lobby for unlimited charter schools, and University of Arkansas researchers. The researchers work in the arm of the university that has long seemed to have an agenda, in the name of education policy and “reform,” to advance the cause of charter schools and school vouchers and to diminish teacher organizations. You’ll see that when Walter Hussman says frog, the UA jumps. (I suspect D-G editors respond likewise when data are delivered.)

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Here’s another series of notes. And here’s a note showing the UA sent this report to the Walton Foundation for review before it released it to the public.

And here’s another from the UA referring to a “response” to LRSD work on challenging the charter schools. This certainly makes the UA appear as an adversary to the Little Rock School District and an advocate for the charter school movement/merit pay movement/etc. (When research doesn’t produce perfect outcomes, you can often count on the UA “reformers” for explanations. See UA work to defend a D.C. voucher program after test scores failed to support its efficacy. The UA argued that a 12 percent graduation rate increase justified the program — never mind all that talk about the importance of standardized test scores in judging school performance.)

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Players include Gary Ritter from the Office of Education Policy at UA, where the Walton influence is well known. Scott Smith, from a Walton-financed agency at UCA. Luke Gordy, hired hand for the pro-charter private foundation financed by the Waltons, Hussman and others. Note that, in one note, Kathy Smith of the Walton Family Foundation writes that she’s had the UA “working on” a defense against LRSD. Note that State Board of Education Chairman Naccaman Williams is an employee of the Walton Foundation. Do you start to see how shots are called in Arkansas education? (Gov. Mike Beebe gets it. He’ll be at the eStem high school expansion ceremony next week.)

Here’s one note from lobbyist Luke Gordy to publisher Walter Hussman:

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Walter:
FYI and extremely important…
We have another report (a new report you have not yet seen) coming from the Office of Education Policy at the U of A that absolutely blows Heller’s arguments out of the water. Scott Smith [UCA], Kathy Smith [Walton Foundation], Jess Askew [e-Stem charter school], Mike Wilson [Jacksonville charter school backer] and I met on this issue yesterday. We have all collectively decided the time has come to go on the offensive regarding Heller’s ludicrous positions.

The report is in draft format with some current data inconsistancies that need to be cleaned up and resolved before it is released. We are trying to have it completed by the end of the day today. When it is finished, we want to get the report to you for hopeful significant coverage in the Democrat Gazette previous to the federal court hearing on the status report of the deseg issues surrounding LRSD, PCSSD and NLRSD before Judge Brian Miller on Wednesday, September 30th. I’ll get it to you as soon as it’s ready.

Thanks…

Luke