Editor’s note: Education activist and former LRSD Board member Jim Ross often provides reporting and commentary on the district for the Arkansas Times. He also writes extensively on Facebook, where you can read about the background of this policy and additional thoughts on it.
On Sept. 22, the Little Rock School Board will consider a policy change that would turn over their autonomy to visit schools and provide oversight of our children and their education to the whims of the superintendent’s office. On the surface it may not seem to be that big of a deal, but I want to explain why stopping this policy is so important to me.
This issue has nothing to do with Superintendent Jermall Wright, who did not propose this policy, or any personality on the board.
If our board gives up its authority to have independent, free oversight of our schools then we will leave them to the superintendent. Our superintendent has only been here a few weeks so this has nothing to do with him, but we’ve had superintendents over the decades that had agendas that ended up hurting the most vulnerable of children in this city. If we do not have a board that will keep a watchful eye on our schools when they want, not in some arranged and scripted visit, why have a board at all? Just let the powers that be do what they want.
Third, and this is the most important. The Arkansas Constitution guarantees all children in our state a “general, suitable and efficient system of free public schools.” This clause in our constitution was used in numerous lawsuits in the 1950s-2000s to make sure African-American and Latino kids were getting an equitable education.
The statute that derived from this constitutional guarantee states that a school board shall “provide no less than a general, suitable, and efficient system of free public schools (Arkansas Code 6-13-620). The code uses the same language to describe the duty of a school board as found in the constitution. The school board is the legally delegated entity that makes sure we have equitable schools.
The statute then lists 11 things the school board is to do to guarantee that equitable schools are being kept. Number 9 says they will visit schools when kids are in classrooms. If they are not doing that then the board is being negligent in its duty.
The duty implied here is oversight and accountability. This cannot be done if the principals and superintendent are determining when a board member will visit and who board members can talk to. As a board member, it is their legal right and responsibility to visit and watch over our schools in an unscripted fashion.
For me, the board’s duty to visit the schools is part of our long civil rights struggle to guarantee that African-American and Latino children are being given an equitable education. I need to know my representatives on the board are down in the schools making sure all children are being treated equitably.
So this is why this matters to me.