I went to a couple of Little Rock School Board members today for reactions to the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce assasult — on behalf of the Billionaire Boys Club — on the Little Rock School District.

Board members Baker Kurrus and Melanie Fox both have labored long for the district. Both voted against the motion for the district to contest the state’s unbridled effort to cram more charter schools into Pulaski County, no matter the damage to desegregation of the three public school districts and their inter-district magnet schools. It is that motion that has the billionaires going nuclear.

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Both Kurrus and Fox remain firmly opposed to that court intervention, but they were critical of the Chamber’s latest. Fox said she’d informed Luke Gordy, lobbyist for the billionaires, to remove her name from a listing of the Arkansas Education Reform Foundation, one of several groups founded by the Hussman/Walton/Stephens/Murphy money pot to advance charter schools in the state. She said the attack was counter-productive. “I want to spend my time and energy improving what we have,” Fox said. No one has been more outspoken than Fox about underperforming schools and administrators and the need for significant change in the district. But she said, “We have some great schools. We have great teachers. The whole thing about money? I don’t mind spending money on kids.”

Kurrus sent this e-mail from Colorado. He’s not seeking re-election this September, I’m reminded. His comments, after reviewing the website the Chamber and Luke Gordy have created:

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