Pulaski County (AR) charter schools

DISTRICTS MAKE SETTLEMENT OFFER IN SCHOOL DESEGREGATION CASE, April 20, 2010, Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — State Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said today he is considering a proposal to settle remaining issues in the long-running Pulaski County school desegregation case…

The state currently pays the districts nearly $70 million a year in desegregation aid. The attorney general last year proposed a settlement that would phase out the payments over a seven-year period.

At issue is the state’s practice of approving open-enrollment charter schools in Pulaski County without conditions. Chris Heller, attorney for the Little Rock School District, has argued that the practice hinders desegregation efforts, violating a 1989 settlement agreement in the federal school desegregation case.

Under the terms proposed by the school districts, new charter schools in the county could be established only for the purpose of improving the achievement of black students and under-performing students.

Any new charter schools in the county would be subject to the terms of the 1989 settlement in the desegregation case and would require court approval in the absence of an agreement between the parties in the case.

Existing charter schools in the county would face new stipulations that they be economically diverse. The Academics Plus charter school in Maumelle would be placed on probation for having less than 20 percent black enrollment despite promising to serve a diverse student body…

The school districts’ offer comes less than a month after the Little Rock School Board voted 4-3 to authorize Heller to file a lawsuit challenging the state’s approval of charter schools in Pulaski County…

No comments: