Missed chances to lead | Arkansas Democrat Gazette

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Democrats critical of the LEARNS Act seem to be hoping voters have amnesia.

There are schools in Arkansas that have been terribly underperforming for decades, resulting in generations of undereducated children--despite ever-increasing cost-per-pupil government spending. I and others have been writing about them since the 1990s.

It's easy to forget that back then (and before), Democrats in the Arkansas Legislature had the same political supremacy that Republicans have now.

Democratic legislators at any time leading up to their ouster from majority status a dozen years ago could have made innovative, transformative education reform a real priority. They didn't.

Democrats turned their eyes, minds and lawmaking energy away from kids who needed the most help. Any education solution that didn't carry the NEA or ATF stamp of approval was DOA in the General Assembly.

When the unions didn't want bad teachers fired, Arkansas Democrats made it almost impossible to fire them. At the time the Legislature passed the misnamed Teacher Fair Dismissal Act, Democrats controlled the Senate 32-2 and the house 93-7.

That law was good for bad teachers, but not so good for the kids in their classrooms. As that deficiency became more and more evident, Democrats could have repealed it any time. They didn't.

Republicans finally did, as part of the LEARNS Act.

Year after year, Democrats marched in lockstep with the unions' opposition to merit pay for teachers. Even while Arkansas languished in state-to-state salary comparisons and more and more teachers left the profession, Democrats backed universal across-the-board raises that rewarded the worst and best teachers equally.

As research piled up in support of teacher incentive concepts through the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, Arkansas Democrats could have led on the issue. They didn't.

Merit pay is a key part of LEARNS provisions, and bonuses up to $10,000 were just awarded to 4,200 teachers across Arkansas. The distribution map shows many recipients to be in some of our poorest counties and school districts, where demonstrative gains were made in student performance and outcomes.

A few years after Hillary Clinton linked education efficacy with community responsibility in "It Takes A Village," the state decided that village-sized schools needed to be shut down and consolidated. That decision not only destroyed many good small schools, but also decimated small communities where the school was one of the largest employers.

When Act 60 of 2004 was passed, Democrats still held an iron grip on the Legislature: 27-8 in the Senate and 72-28 in the House. They also had subsequent years of majority control to undo that ridiculous, arbitrary enrollment requirement, which proved so detrimental and/or deadly to small schools and towns. They didn't.

It wasn't undone until 2023, when Republicans were in full control.

Democrats continuously sanctioned school policies forcing parents to stay in a failing district based on where they live--which made moving away the only choice for parents who wanted better schools for their kids. When that inevitably happened, the loss of involved parents and good kids not only irreparably weakened those school districts, but also their communities.

Democrats could have championed common sense on school choice at any time while they had unchecked power in the Legislature. They didn't.

Two years after Republicans gained control, The Public School Choice Act was passed in 2015.

It's worth vividly remembering that when Democrats had greater majorities than Republicans do now in state government, they were constantly derelict toward innovative ideas or efforts to improve education for students in the worst schools.

They had the power to change anything and everything. To try something new. To put kids first--ahead of national unions, ahead of the entrenched bureaucracy. To value students above the system. They didn't.

Oh, all the chances Democrats had in those supermajority decades to lead on revolutionizing education in Arkansas!

They could have pushed back on consolidation, and bucked the unions and the establishment. They could have stood with parents whose kids were trapped in failing schools. They could have been visionary about rural education as it related to local economics. They could have embraced emerging remote connectivity and Internet technology for learning as it took off in other fields and industries.

They didn't.

All the missed opportunities. The lost children. The squandered trust of parents and teachers and school patrons.

Democrats should have recognized that kids trapped in Arkansas' worst schools had been ignored for too long. That parents being dismissed and disrespected by the education bureaucracy had reached a tipping point. That voters were fed up with politicizing education for racial leverage and other special-interest and social-engineering causes instead of making students and learning the true priority. They didn't.

Even now, all Democrats have is darts to throw at the LEARNS Act, with a favorite target being its Education Freedom Account program--which operates in some form or other in 34 states.

All whine, no ideas. That's not leadership. Or a formula for winning elections.

With Democrats' track record on education innovation, a reincarnation of the famous Confucius attribution might apply: "Party who says it cannot be done, should not interrupt Party doing it."

Dana D. Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.