For AR People
Brian Chilson

Nettleton Public Schools teacher Jenny Petty donned some red for public ed this morning and made the drive to the Capitol, largely for naught.

Proponents of taxpayer-funded vouchers, charter schools and other alternatives to the traditional public school system were rallying in the rotunda to hear Governor Sarah Sanders talk up “school choice,” and Petty was one of the splashes of red in the crowd. The red apple pinned to her lapel signaled support for teacher raises and her concern about any move that would rout the budgets of public schools in pursuit of Sanders’ still amorphous education reform package.

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Brian Chilson
Among the yellow shirts symbolizing support for school vouchers were some traditional public education supporters in red. Jenny Petty is the one on the right.

As far as learning anything new about the bold conservative reforms Sanders keep threatening to unleash on everyone, the trip was kind of a bust, Petty said.

“It was just more messaging and rhetoric, and I don’t feel like I learned anything new. I would love more specifics.” A former private school teacher who knows the perks and drawbacks on both sides, Petty said she fears the economic gutting public schools would suffer if students leave and take their funding with them. “I do know what I’m talking about, and I’m not pro-vouchers.”

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Brian Chilson
Governor Sanders promised education reform, but offered few specifics.

Others at the rally were easier to impress. Sanders worked through a tried and true repertoire during her fairly brief speech in the second floor Capitol Rotunda Thursday morning: a joke that her son George has complained about long speeches so she would keep it short, a promise to deliver education reform, pledges to prevent indoctrination in Arkansas schools.

Brian Chilson
One of the Americans for Prosperity-affiliated proponents of school choice who came out to hear Governor Sanders Thursday.

The mainly yellow-shirted crowd wearing Americans for Prosperity branded T-shirts with school buses on the back seemed to like it all pretty well. Americans for Prosperity is the hyper-conservative political group launched by the infamous Koch brothers. Supporters clapped when Sanders pronounced that, “Education reform will be the hallmark of my administration.” They remained appropriately grave-faced when she warned, “We will take whatever steps are necessary to prevent indoctrination in our schools.”

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One of Sanders’ newer talking points got an especially warm reception: “This is not about school choice. It’s about parental choice.” Woops. Hollers. Cheers.

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Americans for Prosperity Arkansas Director Ryan Norris called for more freedom.

Another pronouncement, this one with undertones of Sanders’ former boss Donald Trump, also landed bigly. “We will reform education in a way no state has ever done in this country.”

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Sanders gave perfunctory nods to teacher raises, expanded broadband and safety in schools, but that was pretty much it. No specifics were offered about what parental choice will entail.

Brian Chilson
Governor Sanders arrived early to the Americans for Prosperity school choice rally at the Capitol Thursday.

School choice proponent Thurlow Cops, a financial adviser from Sherwood, agreed there are lots of details still to be worked out. He said he came to the rally because he doesn’t think public schools are always a good fit, and it’s only fair to allocate resources to nonpublic school students, too. Surveying the successes or failures of the people he graduated high school with, Cops said he can look back and see that not all of his classmates were getting what they needed from their education.

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But will all students be allocated the same amount of cash? What if the voucher money doesn’t cover tuition at the private or church school the family wants to go to? Cops said he has those questions too, but thinks it can all be hashed out equitably.

Brian Chilson
Governor Sarah Sanders and the first gentleman lingered to chat with supporters after her speech.

While legislative leadership has said they stand at the ready to usher Sanders’ education bill into law, there might be a few bumps in the road. Sanders said she plans to pack both teacher raises and school vouchers into one single bill, forcing lawmakers to go all or nothing. Rural legislators, even Republican ones, are aware that voucher programs could leave their public schools high and dry, and that decimated schools could have a ripple economic effect. But after a year of pressure from public school teachers wanting the raises former Gov. Asa Hutchinson pitched in early 2022, lawmakers who don’t want vouchers but do want teacher raises will be squeezed into a tight spot. Which is of course by design.

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Teacher Jessie McGruder was one of the red dots in the crowd. He came from Marion (Crittenden County) Thursday as a sign of support for higher teacher pay. His district, and others in the Delta, can’t offer the same salaries as districts elsewhere in the state. That’s leaving them short-staffed, he said.

Petty said she’d hoped to get a minute to speak with the governor while she was in town, but it didn’t pan out. She shared her notes with us about what she had wanted to tell Sanders:

I’m here at the Capitol today because as an Arkansas educator and a mother of an Arkansas public school student, the decisions  made in this building affect me. They affect the quality of my daughter’s education and they affect my career.

I took a personal day to be here. We only receive three per school year. This process is not friendly to teachers. Most teachers will need to secure a substitute to take a personal day. Showing up in person is not easy for teachers and working moms. But I’m here because I feel the future of my profession and the quality of our schools is at stake.

I’d love to see some friendly conversation about our differing views on education and also find things we can all agree on. For example, I think we can all agree that expanded pre-k services are good for Arkansas children. I formerly worked for ASU Childhood Services and would love to know what exactly the plans are.

I know the Governor will be meeting with the Americans for Prosperity Group. I wish she’d speak with us, Arkansa Strong in Education, as we requested. We’re actual Arkansas educators, in the trenches. We have a lot of ideas about how education can be improved in this state.

I feel frustrated that people from out of state with money to spend (such as Americans for Prosperity) can come in and talk about what they think is the right way to do public education in Arkansas. I don’t see the Governor, the legislators asking for public school teachers to be here. I’d think public schools teachers would be the experts on public education – in Arkansas.

I don’t feel like I really know what’s in Governor Sanders’ “LEARNS” plan exactly. She’s spent a lot of time on messaging- she tells us it’s great, it’s empowering, etc. But we have no idea, concretely, as to how components will be implemented. Nothing she said today in the rotunda further fleshed out the “LEARNS” legislation.

In my job as ESOL Coordinator if I want to change school policy, I have to concretely and succinctly create a plan. Then share it with my ESOL staff and assistant superintendent for feedback. If it’s all good then we roll it out. We don’t keep it a secret!