ARKANSAS
PROUDLY PUBLISHED BY THE ARKANSAS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
VOLUME 42 N O 2 | SUMMER 2021
Healthcare
VICTORY After months of advocacy by the AEA, the Board of Finance decided against a massive spike in insurance premiums for public school employees.
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INSIDE: 2021 LEGISLATIVE SUCCESS • SUMMER LEADERS CONFERENCE
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EDUCATOR VOLUME 42 NO 2 SUMMER 2021
CONTENTS 10 Arkansas voucher program for students with disabilities
PRESIDENT CAROL FLEMING VICE PRESIDENT MARY KNIGHT SECRETARY-TREASURER AUDREY NICHOLS AEA-NEA DIRECTOR BRENDA ROBINSON AEA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TRACEY-ANN NELSON EDITOR KYLE LEYENBERGER
2 NEWSFLASH: • AEA member named 2021 computer science educator of the year • Districts adopt COVID-19 pay increases 3 A letter from the President 4 2021 Legislative Update Controversy and COVID-19 marked a lengthy and fraught legislative session
VISIT US ONLINE AT: aeaonline.org/AREducator Follow us on Twitter @ArkEducation Become an AEA Facebook friend. ARKANSAS EDUCATOR is published as a service to all members of the Arkansas Education Association 1500 West 4th Street Little Rock, AR 72201 t: 501-375-4611 f: 501-375-4620 tf: 800-632-0624 ADVERTISERS Advertising contents should be addressed to the Editor. Advertising rates are available upon request. Advertising is printed as a service to readers and publication does not imply Association endorsement. The Association reserves the right to refuse any advertising.
16 Voting Rights Rally Voting rights attack fails following rally
18 Member Profile: Computer Science teacher brings Arkansas perspective to national career tech conversation 6 SUMMER LEADERS: The 2021 AEA Summer Leaders Conference brings a return to in-person events 8 Health Insurance Update Policy makers vote to fund health insurance plan, AEA wins big victory!
21 From the Desk of the Executive Director
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AEA MEMBER NAMED 2021 COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR
DISTRICTS ADOPT COVID PAY INCREASES Ashley Kincannon, a teacher at Lake Hamilton Junior High School in the Lake Hamilton School District, was named the 2021 Arkansas Computer Science Educator of the Year. In addition to receiving a $2,500 award when named a finalist, Kincannon received an additional $12,500 award from the Arkansas Department of Education’s Office of Computer Science. Carl Frank, the feature of this issue’s profile was also a finalist. Kincannon’s win was announced following the Fifth Annual Governor’s All-State Coding Competition, held in Little Rock. “For the fifth straight year, this competition has inspired impressive solutions from Arkansas’ top computer science students,” Hutchinson said. “Their work reinforces my confidence that these students will be more than well prepared to take the reins of leadership. When you consider the caliber of the five teachers we recognized, it’s no surprise that we are seeing this excellence in our computer science students.”
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School districts across Arkansas are giving additional compensation to staff for working during the covid-19 pandemic. Local AEA leaders across the state are working with school boards to encourage extra compensation for work performed during the covid-19 pandemic. Districts are acknowledging the extra work, providing bonuses often based on the number of days worked. At this year’s Summer Leader Conference, members from Camden and Little Rock shared their experiences in successfully advocating for the increased pay with district administration and school boards. The payments ensure school employees are compensated for the additional duties including providing both virtual and in-person instruction and cleaning and disinfecting school buildings. In Camden, employees started their summer with an extra payment of up to $2,445 based on hours worked over the year.
The My AEA app is a way for members to connect with AEA support. Call or email your Uniserve Director, look up events dates and locations, follow the latest news from AEA and read the Arkansas Educator magazine with your device in just a few clicks. You can also access your digital member card, NEA member benefits and much more. Search for “MyAEA” in the Apple App Store or Google Play store today.
SUMMER 2021
A L E T T E R F R OM THE PRESIDENT
Just when we thought it was over, we discover it is not. As this issue of the Arkansas Educator goes to print, Arkansas’s public schools are planning for students and educators to return for the upcoming school year. There is concern amidst the rise in cases from a mutated variant and a lag in vaccinations while Arkansas remains in the nation’s top percentage of cases and hospitalizations. Safety remains as our top priority. AEA continues to advocate fiercely for the safety, health, and rights of students and educators. This publication has an extensive look at the 93rd General Assembly Legislative Session. It was truly a session like no other with legislation focused on school funding, teacher salaries, private school vouchers and voting rights. Some of the best news from the legislative session was the commitment to K-12 public education with the largest increase in school funding in over a decade and the increase in the median teacher pay by $2,000 over the next two years. Also in this issue, we invite you to travel with us to Hot Springs where we meet Carl Frank, a computer science teacher at the Arkansas School for Math and Sciences. Find out why he joined the largest professional organization for public school educators and was a state finalist for the 2021 Computer Science Educator of the Year. A few miles further south, we meet Ashley Kincannon of Lake Hamilton School District who was named the 2021 Arkansas Computer Science Educator of the Year. In this issue, readers will see the work that was done on behalf of educators enrolled in the Public Education Employees Health Insurance plan. AEA was pivotal in the work with legislators and the Employees Benefits Division to ensure our health insurance costs didn’t skyrocket. In addition, AEA partnered with multiple organizations and legislators to protect voting rights of Arkansans. Two events were held at the Capitol. One outside on the steps and the other inside the rotunda. As you can tell, it has been a busy time, but I want to take a moment to thank each of you for everything you do for Arkansas’s students. Together, we will continue to stand and support students and educators as we improve education in our state. Thank you for your contributions to the lives of our students, which become more apparent with each passing day, and for being a member of the Arkansas Education Association.
Carol Fleming, President, AEA
ABOUT PRESIDENT FLEMING: Carol B. Fleming MS, CCC-SLP is a speech language pathologist currently serving as President of the Arkansas Education Association. Before taking the helm of the state’s largest association for education professionals, Fleming spent two decades working with students at Pulaski Heights Middle School within the Little Rock School District. Fleming has worked to ensure good public education policies at the local, state and national level. As a parent of an adult with special needs, she is reminded daily of the importance of advocating on behalf of the professions and those served which has fueled her passion for education, leadership, and professional issues. Her goal is to get others to become involved to support successful public schools.
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LEGISLATIVE
Yet, another big win for public education was the passage of Act 513. This law extends eligibility to receive an Arkansas teaching license to Arkansans working under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. This will open up the teaching profession to more future educators and help to diversify the workforce. This bill was sponsored by Rep. DeAnn Vaught. Another effort to diversify the education profession came with the approval of Act 636. This new law requires school districts to craft a teacher and administrator recruitment and retention plan to ensure a school employee workforce that reflects a school district’s student body. This bill was sponsored by Rep. DeAnn Vaught.
UPDATE
Controversy and COVID-19 marked a lengthy and fraught legislative session. Lawmakers convened for the lengthiest legislative session since 1931. Lawmakers handed Arkansas students and educators a mixed bag. AEA monitored, tracked and testified for and against several bills as they were debated. Here’s a rundown of the good, the bad and the ugly. Some of the biggest wins included the culmination of years of advocacy by AEA to increase teacher pay and increase the state’s investment in public education. Lawmakers passed Act 680 which increases the median teacher salary in the state by $2,000 and sets aside tens of millions of dollars to aid districts in reaching this new goal. Act 680 builds on Act 170 that lawmakers approved in the 2019 session which increased the minimum teacher salary by $4,000. In addition, the legislature adopted Act 614, which increases per pupil state funding of education to $7,182 in fiscal year 2021 and up to $7,349 in fiscal year 2022. This represents the largest increase in state investment in public education in 14 years. These bills were sponsored by Rep. Bruce Cozart.
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AEA worked with legislators to pass Act 744 which builds on the work that NEA and AEA have been doing to develop Community Schools. This new law secures state support for school districts who want to implement a Community Schools model. This bill was sponsored by Sen. Missy Irvin. Act 612 which initially sought to ban various public employees from the right to collectively bargain, was amended to specifically target educators was adopted by the General Assembly. Currently, there are no school districts that bargain a contract in Arkansas, so this does not immediately change circumstances for educators. However, it does preempt educators’ ability to bargain a contract moving forward. This bill was sponsored by Sen. Bob Ballinger. AEA partnered with a coalition of public education partners to defeat HB1371, a massive voucher scheme. This bill sought to divert tens of millions of dollars to unaccountable private schools. This bill was sponsored by Rep. Ken Bragg. Unfortunately, Act 904, a much smaller, $2 million voucher bill did win legislative approval after the bill sponsor, Sen. Jonathan Dismang, pushed the bill through the Revenue and Tax Committees instead of the Education Committees. In addition, AEA members inspired another bill that will improve voter access to elections information. When AEA staff were preparing elections and voting information for members in the 2020 election cycle, they discovered that not all voters had access to see a sample of the ballot that they will see when they go vote via the Arkansas Secretary of State’s website, https://www.voterview.ar-nova.org/VoterView. This new law requires all county clerks to upload all sample ballots online so voters can know what all they will be asked to consider when they go vote.
This bill is now Act 128 and was sponsored by Rep. Andrew Collins. Several other voting and elections-related bills were considered during the legislative session including SB485 by Sen. Kim Hammer. This bill sought to reduce the number of early voting days in an attempt to limit voter access to the polls. AEA cosponsored a rally on the Capitol steps and a press conference inside the Capitol leading up to the final vote on the bill. Fortunately for democracy, this bill was ultimately defeated. In the final days of the legislative session, Sen. Trent Garner passed Act 1002. This preempts local governmental bodies, including school boards from adopting a mask mandate. On the last full day of the legislative session, Senate President, Jimmy Hickey passed Act 1004 which abolished the State and Public School Life and Health (PSLH) Insurance Board and transferred their duties to the Board of Finance. The PSLH board governs both the State Employee health insurance plan as well as the Public School Employee health insurance plan. This proposal was largely in response to a looming $70 million deficit in the Public School Employee health insurance plan.
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Last, but not least, in a testament to the incredible work that our members, both active and retired, did to resoundingly defeat the massive attack on public retirement systems in Arkansas in 2019, there were zero bills filed in the 2021 session that sought to undermine the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System or any other public retirement system. This remarkable victory has become a sustainable organizing achievement. This proves what we can all do when we act collectively to improve public education and the education profession. A twist in the 2021 legislative session saw legislators vote to enter into a months long recess instead of final adjournment known as sine die. This is largely due to the delay in receiving data from the 2020 US Census. State lawmakers are required to redraw Congressional districts based on population data from the decennial census. This process is called redistricting. Lawmakers are expected to reconvene in the Fall to complete the drawing of the new Congressional district maps. Lawmakers have also made it clear that they plan to approve significant tax cuts in the Fall. The state ended the 2021 fiscal year with nearly 1 billion dollars in surplus funds.
Arkansas educators know first-hand the struggles that their students are experiencing, not only during the pandemic but also before. At the end of the day, our calling is to support students and utilize our professional expertise to help students learn and grow. VISIT THE AEA LEGISLATIVE ACTION CENTER to make your voice heard.
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2021
SUMMER LEADERS BRINGS RETURN TO IN-PERSON EVENTS The 2021 AEA Summer Leaders Conference: Building Local Leaders from the Ground Up offered a chance to come together to learn how to strengthen our local associations and advocate more effectively through the PPC process. Nearly 100 members joined AEA staff in Little Rock June 4-5, 2021 for AEA’s first in-person event since the pandemic forced cancellations across the globe. AEA member and Arkansas Computer Science Teacher of the Year Ashley Kincannon, who shared her story of overcoming adversity to thrive, and UCA President Houston Davis who shared his thoughts on leadership. Attendees
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also got an update on the Public School Employee Health Insurance Crisis, and UDs Karla Carpenter and Dr. Carolyn Jones led a comprehensive training on the PPC process. During this training, members shared stories of working with school boards to pass pay increases. In addition, locals had an opportunity to put the skills they learned to use. The final session gave members of local associations time to revisit their constitution and bylaws and work together on concrete plans for building power through increased membership. Check in with your local president to find out how you can get engaged!
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POLICY MAKERS VOTE TO FUND HEALTH INSURANCE PLAN, AEA WINS BIG VICTORY “Arkansas’s educators must have a seat at the table for decisions regarding their plan. It is imperative their health insurance plan be affordable and provide meaningful benefits.” Carol Fleming AEA President
In April, it became clear that the Public School Employee insurance plan was facing a projected $70 million shortfall for the 2022 plan year. To address this, the State Board of Finance considered proposals that would mean a significant increase in insurance premiums and significant decrease in benefits. However, after months of advocacy, the premium spikes were averted handing public school educators a huge victory. When the shortfall was announced, AEA leadership and staff sprang to action, working to determine the underlying causes and encouraging decision makers to keep educators top of mind while considering solutions. In April, the Association hosted a virtual and in-person townhall where members were able to ask questions and share
concerns with government officials and worked to share educator perspective in statewide media publications. After hearing of the shortfall, the state legislature abolished the State and Public School Life and Health Insurance Board and shifted that responsibility to the State Board of Finance, which was weighing the untenable proposal. The state also hired consultants to study the system and make recommendations about how to make long-term adjustments. “Educators risked their health over the last year to keep schools open and meet student needs during a global health crisis,” said AEA Executive Director Tracey-Ann Nelson. “It’s unthinkable that this devastating proposal is even on the table.” Worse still, Nelson said the proposals under consideration won’t solve the underlying issue. Health care costs are rising at an annual rate of 7%, but there is no built-in state funding mechanism to anticipate this, resulting in the state contributing a smaller percentage of the plan’s cost each year. Our public school employees already pay more than most surrounding states, and the government pays much less than all but one of our neighbors. “The broken funding mechanism in our health insurance plan means the state hasn’t held up its end of the bargain,” she said. “Who’s left holding the bag? Without help from our lawmakers, it will be our friends and family who work with our children.” AEA leaders, current and retired educators joined Senator Joyce Elliott ahead of an important vote June 17th to call on the Arkansas Legislative Council to
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reject massive health insurance rate hikes on public school employees. Hope teacher Hosea Born and Pulaski County Bookkeeper Audrey Nichols shared the harm it would cause educators if monthly insurance premiums increased by an astonishing 10% in the 2022 plan year. Donna Morey, Executive Director of the Arkansas Retired Teacher Association, shared concerns about the proposed 15-20% premium increases for retired educators on the plan. In addition to the increases, educators would lose half of a wellness benefit that currently reduces premium costs. This would have meant the monthly contribution for a single employee on the classic plan would jump 45% from $71 to $103 each month. The proposed increases in insurance premiums would have eroded the progress made in teacher pay this year, and driven educators who are not teachers out of the plan altogether. Further, the reduced pool would make the plan less financially secure and more expensive to operate while robbing people of a key benefit that helps secure a stable workforce. “Arkansas’s educators must have a seat at the table for decisions regarding their plan,” said AEA President Carol Fleming. “It is imperative their health insurance plan be affordable and provide meaningful benefits.” On Friday, June 18th, the Arkansas Legislative Council approved a request for $35M, which fell well short of the needed $70M. Senator Elliott called on her colleagues to prevent shifting the burden onto educators’ backs. After a short-term investment, Nelson called on the state to create a sustainable funding mechanism that anticipates the annual increase in health care costs.
“We need lawmakers to stand with educators and direct the government to use a small part of that surplus to do what is right for our school employees. At the same time, our state must fix the problem so school employees can afford decent insurance in the years to come.” Tracey-Ann Nelson AEA Executive Director
lawmakers to stand with educators and direct the government to use a small part of that surplus to do what is right for our school employees. At the same time, our state must fix the problem so school employees can afford decent insurance in the years to come.” By July 7th, the Board of Finance recommended that the state send an additional $20 million to help offset the pending shortfall. This was on top of $20 million allocated during the 2021 legislative session and $35 million approved on June 17. Finally, on July 23, the Arkansas Legislative Council gave the proposal to fully fund the health insurance plan final approval which included no increase in health insurance premiums for active or retired educators. However, it is important to note that while the health insurance premiums will not increase for the 2022 health insurance plan year, the $50 monthly wellness benefit will be reduced to $25 for participating insurance plan members. AEA leadership has called on local school districts to work through Personnel Policy Committees to increase the district’s employee contribution by $25 to offset the reduction in the wellness benefit.
AEA created a toolkit for members to implement at the local level, available in the members only section of aeaonline. org. It includes an overview of the situation, information on your district’s current level of contribution, model policy proposals and justifications to be presented to your local school board.
“The state announced a $1Billion surplus,” she said. “We need
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Arkansas voucher program for students with disabilities draws ire of parents, advocates By Olivia Pascha, Courtesy of Facing South
The Arkansas state legislature’s first foray into education vouchers was in 2015, when it created the state-funded Succeed Scholarship for children with disabilities. Launched the following year, the program currently gives parents nearly $7,000 per year to help send an eligible child to a private school. Not a single legislator voted against the bill, a rare achievement for school choice legislation in a state where public schools have historically gotten bipartisan support. In the program’s first year, it funded just 23 students. Today, it’s assisting 479 students and costing the state $3.3 million a year, according to the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE). Eligibility has been expanded to include some children in the foster care system. The scholarships are administered by ADE and the Reform Alliance, a nonprofit group funded in part by the Walton Family Foundation, a lead backer of school choice reforms in Arkansas.
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But parents and education advocates are questioning how accountable the program is to the state and whether it adequately serves students with complex needs. They also point to the program’s lack of accessibility for families in poverty, the geographic concentration of recipients, and the requirement that participating parents or guardians temporarily sign away their child’s right to a “free and appropriate” public education under the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, meaning they
have little legal recourse if a private school fails their student. In addition, private schools do not have to be accredited to take Succeed Scholarship vouchers — they just need to show they’re on the path to accreditation. “We’re doing a disservice to families across the state by not being open and honest about the services they may or may not get,” said Tom Masseau, the executive director of Disability Rights Arkansas.
Questions about the Succeed Scholarship loom as the Arkansas state legislature is expanding school choice programs. This session, lawmakers passed a $2 million bill that provides a full tax credit to individuals and corporations who donate to a fund that will pay private school tuition for students in families with incomes up to 200% of the federal poverty line. The governor is expected to sign the bill, which was contentious from the start — even within the legislature’s Republican supermajority. Critics refer to it as essentially another voucher bill.
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“I’ve watched this state privatize public education every piece of the way,” state Rep. David Tollett (R), superintendent for the Barton-Lexa School District in Phillips County, said in the House floor debate prior to the vote. State Rep. Gary Deffenbaugh (R), a retired educator, asked, “The question is, who are private schools accountable to? Who has oversight over them?” The requirements for private schools receiving the Succeed Scholarship are minimal — far less stringent than the requirements imposed on public schools. “We intentionally said that those schools that would be recipients were not required to meet any state standard, except some very rudimentary type things,” explained former state Rep. Douglas House (R), who sponsored the legislation creating the program. He said its aim was to help children with severe disabilities who were not being served by their home school districts, to keep school districts from having to spend copious amounts of money to educate them, and to give parents greater control over their children’s education. “The point is the parent gets to make that decision, not the school, not the school district, not the teachers,” said House. “The parents make the decision what is best for their child, and that’s the most important thing.” But the program was set up in a way that gives ADE very little authority over the private schools receiving the funding. And what authority it does have it doesn’t always use. For example, ADE does not proactively ensure that requirements are being met, as it does in the case of public schools, but rather responds to concerns as they arise. In an interview with Facing South, ADE attorney Courtney Salas-Ford said that the department’s accountability processes for public and private schools are “night and day.” “We have an affirmative obligation to monitor and ensure compliance with the public schools,” she said. “It’s not the complaint-initiated thing we do with private schools.” But parents often don’t realize how little authority the state has over private schools, according to disability rights advocate Masseau. They are “accepting this scholarship thinking they’re going to get the moon, the sun, the stars, everything,” he said. “And in fact, they’re getting very scarce services.”
THE CASE OF THE HANNAH SCHOOL Several parents who received the scholarship for their children to attend the Hannah School, a private school near Little Rock for children with dyslexia, told Facing South they feel misled and dissatisfied with the education their children received. “While making the decision to place my child at the Hannah School I thought the school had to meet these qualifications,” said Sonia Fonticiella, an attorney whose elementary-age child received the Succeed Scholarship to attend the Hannah School. “I remember looking at the paperwork and believing that if the state certified this school to educate children with this specific learning difference, it had to be legitimate. I believed the state standards set out meant the state also had a vetting process and a check and balance process to ensure state funds were being put to good use.” Problems at the school became apparent early last fall when at least eight parents emailed ADE to say they planned to withdraw their children and transfer them to other schools, though several eventually changed their minds and were allowed to switch their Succeed Scholarship back to the Hannah School. Around the same time, ADE received emails from several parents alleging that the school was violating the rules governing the scholarship by failing to hire only teachers with bachelor’s degrees or higher, not employing a licensed special education teacher, not being “academically accountable” to parents and guardians — a requirement for Succeed Scholarship eligibility — and not administering a nationally recognized norms-referenced test or providing parents or guardians with portfolios and reports of their students’ progress. According to an internal document reviewed by Facing South, at one point last year the Hannah School employed six teachers with a bachelor’s degree or higher, five “teaching staff” with no bachelor’s degree, one teaching assistant with no bachelor’s degree, and two for whom education levels were unspecified. School leadership appeared to acknowledge the shortcomings in a video posted to the school’s website; it has since been removed but Facing South obtained a copy. “We were not in compliance with the policies set forth by the Department of Education” for receiving the scholarship, school co-founder and then-board member Shawnda Majors said in the video, adding that ADE “have been giving us some grace.”
“We’re doing a disservice to families across the state by not being open and honest about the services they may or may not get.” Tom Masseau, Executive Director of Disability Rights Arkansas
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The accusations of lax standards came amid wider chaos at the school, with private parent messages and Facebook groups roiled with charges of leadership problems. Some parents who had been planning to relocate their children to another school — and take the Succeed Scholarships with them — changed their mind. Majors resigned and left the school altogether. Shelly Bennet, at the time the third board member, also resigned and pulled her child out of the Hannah School. She’s currently homeschooling him. “I just wanted to take my child out because I knew they were not doing a good intervention program,” said Bennet. “I don’t even know what to call that place. It has been, in my 48 years, one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made.” After her time on the board, she said, she’d also become concerned that the school was not meeting all the requirements of the Succeed Scholarship program and was being financially mismanaged. Fonticiella told Facing South she never received any of her child’s records from the year he spent at the school, including therapy records she requested. At this point, she assumes that the records don’t exist and that he never received the required therapy. “They were still receiving [Succeed Scholarship] money while fixing a problem they knew about for years,” she said. “How could they lie so blatantly about the services they provided and now have no consequences?” Fonticiella has placed her son back in public school. When she pulled him out of the Hannah School in the fall, the same private evaluator who first diagnosed him with dyslexia re-evaluated him and found he had made almost no progress and was behind grade level. Now, she says, he’s back on grade level. “He’s doing fantastic with proper intervention and support from his public school,” she said. “The state is pouring money into these programs while continuing to underfund special education services,” said Sujith Cherukumilli of the Southern Education Foundation. “If you relegate the public schools and the special education systems within them to failure, you’re not really providing any options for them.”
ADE did not follow up with the parents who filed complaints to inform them of whether the Hannah School was meeting eligibility requirements, according to public records reviewed by Facing South. A spokesperson for the department told Facing South that the Hannah School is currently in compliance with the requirements of the Succeed Scholarship, including having a special education teacher on contract and administering an approved assessment. Salas-Ford told Facing South that “academic accountability,” a requirement laid out in the program’s rules, is “very difficult to measure” and thus for ADE to enforce. She also told Facing South that the department considers only those defined by the school itself as “teachers” to be teachers. The department did not respond to Facing South’s specific questions about whether the school had ever been in violation of the Succeed Scholarship requirements, and if so what had been done to ensure those issues were addressed. Melissa Hannah and the Hannah School did not return multiple requests for an interview or comment. Emails obtained in a public records request show that the same day Facing South emailed an interview request, Hannah emailed ADE to see if anything further needed to be done to ensure the school’s eligibility. “On October 6, 2020, you responded to allegations and provided supporting documentation to verify compliance,” responded Rhonda Saunders, the ADE employee who works most closely with the Succeed Scholarship.
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BROADER QUESTIONS OF OVERSIGHT, EQUITY The saga at the Hannah School — which remains one of the largest recipients of Succeed Scholarships in Arkansas to this day, with more than 60 recipients on its rolls — is Exhibit A for education and disability advocates in Arkansas who argue that the program is overfunded and under-scrutinized, and perhaps shouldn’t exist at all. Arkansas is one of 11 states with a voucher program specifically for students with disabilities, and one of six in the South, according to a 2018 report. ADE has very little authority over private schools in the state, including those receiving Succeed Scholarship funding. The program rules set out a list of criteria eligible schools must meet, and administrators must sign a document certifying that they do meet those requirements in addition to providing some supporting documentation. The department investigates schools only if they receive a complaint, and an investigation of a school receiving the Succeed Scholarship has not to this point included an in-person visit to the school. The rules for the scholarship also note that ADE does not have any authority over the curriculum or education plan being used for a child with a disability at a given school.
The first biennial report on the Succeed Scholarship, released last spring, showed that more than half of scholarship recipients were concentrated at three schools in Central Arkansas, including the Hannah School — two in or near Little Rock and one in Conway. These schools each had more than 60 scholarship recipients, in some cases making up more than half of the student body. The report also noted that more than 25% of all scholarship recipients were in Little Rock. The majority of schools with students receiving the scholarship are Christian schools. Critics of the program point out that Arkansas is a rural state, and many rural areas don’t have private schools at all — let alone private schools that could serve children with disabilities. But House, the bill’s original sponsor, said that is not the state’s problem. Parents of children with educational needs not being met in their home district, House said, should not rely on the state for help — even though federal law gives children with disabilities a right to a free, appropriate education. “The smart thing they should do, if that’s a priority for them, is move to a place where those needs can be met,” he said. That’s not an adequate answer for many education advocates. “The state is pouring money into these programs while continuing to underfund special education services,” said Sujith Cherukumilli of the nonprofit Southern Education Foundation. “If you relegate the public schools and the special education systems within them to failure, you’re not really providing any options for them.”
School choice programs almost always come at the expense of public schools and the children they serve, critics charge. They suck up all this oxygen and resources away from the things that we should be focusing on, that would improve the quality of education for everybody.”
Advocates also question whether the Succeed Scholarship is accessible to everyone who might need it. “Anecdotally, what we have seen is that those with disabilities that are primary learning disabilities [like] ADHD, charter schools and these other schools are more apt to take them in,” said Masseau of Disability Rights Bill Kopsky, executive director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel Arkansas. “Students with severe disabilities — those in wheelchairs, those with dexterity [problems] or According to public records obtained by Facing South, in whatever it might be — are less likely to be admitted into these November 2019 one parent alleged that Abundant Life Christian voucher programs because schools are not equipped to handle Academy in the city of Sherwood had hired teachers without and provide the services they need to succeed.” bachelors’ degrees and did not have a special education And the money the state gives for Succeed Scholarship students consultant active at the school, according to emails obtained via is not enough to cover tuition at many private schools, which public records request. “I do not believe Abundant Life is able to means parents still often have to pay out of pocket for their child meet children’s needs appropriately,” the parent wrote. to attend — putting those educational options financially out of Abundant Life supplied documents to ADE showing that they reach for parents living in poverty. According to last year’s report, contracted with special ed teachers. But ADE did not attempt just 17% of students receiving the Succeed Scholarship were to verify that the school employed only teachers with bachelors’ known to be free- and reduced-lunch eligible. Statewide, 60% degrees or higher until April 2021, nearly a year and a half after of all public school students are eligible. And 78% of students the parent’s initial email, when Facing South asked whether the receiving the Succeed Scholarship were white, although white school had answered those charges. students make up just 61% of students with disabilities statewide.
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“It’s not really a voucher for a quality education in a private school. It’s really more of a discount coupon,” said Bill Kopsky, executive director ofthe Arkansas Public Policy Panel, which opposes voucher programs.. The lack of transparency over what happened at the Hannah School points to bigger questions over where state resources are best directed — a question that public school advocates already viewed as urgent but that has become even more so as the legislature has passed more expansive school choice legislation. The new tax-credit scholarship legislation, critics on both sides of the aisle say, doesn’t ensure enough accountability for schools receiving funds. It also doesn’t require that private schools receiving funds comply with anti-discrimination provisions. School choice programs almost always come at the expense of public schools and the children they serve, critics charge. “They suck up all this oxygen and resources away from the things that
we should be focusing on, that would improve the quality of education for everybody,” Kopsky said. Arkansas state Sen. Joyce Elliott (D), a longtime public education advocate, worries that legislators are often “chasing the next bright shiny object” in education policy making instead of focusing on systemic fixes. “It sounds very good to say, ‘Well, we’ve just got to give the money to the parents because they know best,’” she said. “Well, that’s not how public money is supposed to be used, no more than you wouldn’t give me my part of public money to build my street in front of my house the way I want to.” “[There’s] this notion that we don’t have a responsibility to work together to create a system for all kids to be successful,” she continued. “And the chances of doing all these things are becoming less and less as we continue to siphon money from the public school funds.”
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VOTING RIGHTS ATTACK FAILS FOLLOWING RALLIES As the 2021 legislative session drew to a close, AEA, along with several other organizations gathered on the steps of the Capitol to rally in support of voting rights. The speakers called for a renewed effort to make it easier for Arkansans to vote, following the passage of a series of bills similar to the Georgia voter suppression laws that made national news. Two days later, AEA leaders again participated in a press conference and rally inside the Capitol to speak out against SB485 by Sen. Kim Hammer-R, Benton. This bill sought to reduce the number of early voting days Arkansans had to cast ballots. The speakers at the event included Sen. Breanne Davis, R-Russellville, who called on her colleagues to maintain the current early voting rules. Following the remarks, attendees lined the stairwell to the House and chanted “Protect Our Vote” as representatives arrived for the floor session. After some debate on the House floor, the bill failed.
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COMPUTER SCIENCE TEACHER BRINGS ARKANSAS PERSPECTIVE TO NATIONAL CAREER TECH CONVERSATION
INCREASING
BANDWIDTH
When Carl Frank mentions Career Technical Education, he’s talking about far more than building benches or fixing fenders in shop class.
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MEMBER PROFILE CARL FRANK
of opportunities for careers that will provide a better way of life for multiple generations to come and to do so in a way that addresses digital inequity head-on.” “There’s still going to be welding, still automotive, but now those are higher tech,” Frank said. “Newer disciplines are also part of CTE now. They’re adding Information Technology focused jobs, network security, cyber security – which is quite exciting.” Frank, a Computer Science Teacher at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Science and the Arts in Hot Springs was just named to a National Career and Technical Education Advisory Council that aims to lead a national dialog focused on accelerating career pathways in technology. He will serve as one of three representatives from Arkansas as the Computing Technology Industry Association council designs strategies to diversify the tech workforce and shape the future of CTE tech curriculum. “I want to make sure students who might see themselves going straight into the workforce have the technology training and background to succeed in whatever path they choose,” he said. “There is a lot of CTE coursework in schools in Arkansas, but this organization is more focused on technologybased curriculum.” As the cost of college rises, tech-focused CTE offers students another path into the growing tech industry. According to CompTIA, in January U.S. employers advertised more than 232,000 job openings for core IT positions. “CTE holds great promise as the to fill this need, and to do so in a way that minimizes the cost of acquiring skills and accelerates the process of preparing people with the employability skills that allow them to contribute from day one on the job,” said Angel L. Piñeiro Jr., vice president, strategic academic relationships, at CompTIA. “With the help of an elite group of educators and other leaders we intend to raise national awareness of CTE as a creator
Those jobs can also often be filled remotely, providing opportunities in parts of the state where other options are lacking. “People could do their work at home and do their work in the communities in which they were raised,” Frank said. “I think job growth will pick up as computer science becomes more prominent as a career.” Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson also recognizes the potential, and has made a push to increase computer science education across the state. In addition to requiring new classes, the Governor created a coding competition where students compete to solve problems at regional and statewide events. “There will be a variety of problems so that, if a particular task is not something the students have encountered, they still have other avenues to solve the problem,” Frank explains. Frank and a colleague recently led a team from his school into the finals in the Arkansas Governor’s Coding Competition, and he was also named as one of five finalists for Arkansas computer science teacher of the year. “I think Arkansas is doing a great job of leading the way in the nation in computer science,” Frank said. “I think it will be good for the economic engine of the state.”
I want to make sure students who might see themselves going straight into the workforce have the technology training and background to succeed in whatever path they choose. Carl Frank
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Everything from duty free lunch and class size management, there just has been so many things AEA has been impactful for that I felt that joining was what you should do, and I’ve never regretted it. Carl Frank, on AEA membership After another university teaching stint in Oklahoma, he returned to work for the Arkansas Department of Education before landing at the school for Math and Sciences. With three decades of work experience in education, Frank says his classes haven’t changed much, other than the programming language currently in use. However, as computers are increasingly part of our daily lives - from smartwatches to automobile systems - he expects interest in the profession to continue to grow.
“Sometimes we’ve got the ability to teach courses based on our interests,” he said. “If you’ve got a teacher that’s really into genetics, we may have a genetics course and then if that teacher leaves and we get someone who’s a marine biologist, so the courses do reflect the personalities of the teachers there.”
“A lot of times students knew, ‘I want to be a doctor, lawyer firefighter or police officer,’ because they had relatives that served those roles or they saw those roles on tv,” he said. “You might not have a family member that’s a computer programmer. The discipline is rather new compared to other career paths.”
That also means many of the educators, including Frank, take an alternative path to licensure. Even though he wasn’t sure he qualified for all of the benefits offered by the AEA, he joined
Even if a student ends up choosing to pursue something else, Frank says the skills developed in his courses are valuable. “it is essentially this core problem solving which is a skill that anybody can use, no matter what they do in life,” he said. “It’s very rewarding I think for all teachers to impact the students’ lives.” While Frank knew he wanted to teach, his path to the classroom was different than many high school teachers. After pursuing a master’s degree, Frank started working for a software company where he programmed automatic teller machines for banks and credit unions. When a job opened at his undergraduate alma mater, Henderson State University, he jumped at the chance.
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“I wasn’t even sure if there was much the organization could do for us,” he said. “You’re taking a lot of people directly from industry or out of the college environment, and they might not have followed the traditional path toward educator licensure.” But he was familiar with the AEA’s work to improve student learning and educator working conditions. “I felt that I was benefiting from those that had gone before me. I wasn’t sure if my role currently as an unlicensed educator, whether those benefits would apply to me or not, but I felt that it was the right thing to do,” he said. “Everything from duty free lunch and class size management, there just has been so many things AEA has been impactful for that I felt that joining was what you should do, and I’ve never regretted it.”
FROM THE DESK OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
TRACEY-ANN NELSON
THERE IS A WAY TO WIN… AEA closely follows a myriad of committees and boards to monitor and assess their decisions and impact on public schools, students and educators. We also develop recommendations and remedies that support the long-term success of the public school infrastructure. This year, as we monitored the Employee Board Division (EBD) meetings, the entity that decided on health insurance plans and premiums for state employees and public school employees. We began seeing concerning financial trends and knew AEA would have to work to support educators through what would come. The Public School Employee (PSE) health insurance plan was headed for a $70 Million deficit and the State Employee plan was headed for a $35 Million deficit. By February, Governor Hutchinson announced PSE would get a $20 million infusion dropping the projected deficit down to $70 Million. EBD put out its recommendation to increase premiums for public school employees to skyrocket between 10 and 20 percent. In addition, the wellness benefit would decrease. As the Executive Director, I met with legislators and others policy makers to raise concerns on the impact of these rate increases on educators. Then, in April, Senate President Jimmy Hickey, filed a bill that eliminated the EBD board and transferred its duties to the Board of Finance. Throughout all these happenings we worked to raise educator voice by writing op ed’s in the statewide newspaper, engaging media around the state and reminding policy makers that Arkansas’s educators have worked through a pandemic were now facing a massive spike in their health insurance costs. When the state
announced a budget surplus of nearly $1 billion, we made clear there is no reason educators should have premium increases. We created a toolkit to help members engage at the local level with school boards and superintendents to raise their per employee contribution to the health insurance plan. In June, the State Employees Association accepted a 5 percent increase in their health insurance premiums. We worried what that would mean for public school educators. It also meant we were on this path alone, but, even a 5 percent increase was unacceptable for educators. I called on our staff and AEA members to double down on our efforts to tell our story. We even developed a full-blown social media campaign using infographics to help members and the community better understand the situation and more. This months-long effort paid off. In July, the Board of Finance recommended no increase to health insurance premiums for Arkansas educators and the Governor and lawmakers pitched in enough in additional state funds to offset the projected shortfall in the plan. In late July, the legislature gave the final approval. This along with our successful campaign to protect the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System is a clear reminder that we know how to win. We have to know the subject matter, talk to decision makers, listen, and respect other points of view, work through the details, put a face to the impact of the decisions, act collectively and never stop trying to be heard.
Tracey-Ann Nelson AEA Executive Director
EDUCATOR This is YOUR magazine – Let us know what you would like to see. Send story ideas to kleyenberger@aeanea.org aeaonline.org
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MEMBERS ONLY Visit the Member’s Only section of www.AEAonline.org where you can find resources including our Educator Health Insurance Toolkit and information about the Association!
