State Legislator Enters School Choice Discussion Between Greenland, West Fork
Martin 'hopeful' situation can be resolved before school starts
Last updated Wednesday, July 25, 2007 6:22 PM CDT in News
By Rose Ann Pearce
THE MORNING NEWS
A state legislator hopes he can find a solution to allow more than 60 Winslow elementary students to attend school in West Fork next year, rather than Greenland.
Rep. Mark Martin, R-Prairie Grove, said he received 13 telephone calls in a 90-minute period Tuesday afternoon as parents arrived home from work to find letters from West Fork Superintendent Diane Barrett.
The letters state West Fork is forced to rescind approval of school choice applications for 65 students because they are white. The state school choice law currently on the books won't allow West Fork to take in more white students because more than 95 percent of the district's students are white -- the highest percentage of white students among all school districts in Washington County.
Martin conferred with attorneys at the Legislative Research Bureau in Little Rock Wednesday to come up with a possible solution.
"I'm hopeful," Martin said. "There is no reason for a superintendent to dig in their heels. In this case, this is not an issue of racial flight."
Sen. Dave Bisbee, R-Rogers, and Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, agreed the racial requirements in the school choice law were intended to prevent "white flight" from school districts with higher numbers of blacks in southeast Arkansas. The requirements were also intended to maintain racial balances in the Pulaski County schools, governed by a federal desegregation plan in effect for years.
Madison said it had never occurred to her the racial percentage requirements in the law would affect Northwest Arkansas schools because schools in the region have relatively low numbers of minority groups, except Hispanics.
The Rogers and Springdale school districts have the highest percentage of Hispanics, at 37.1 percent and 37.98 percent, respectively, according to the Arkansas Department of Education.
The percentage of black students in all Washington County school districts is 4.04 percent of the total student population and only 1.3 percent in Benton County, according to the state education department.
The Winslow students applied for school choice transfers after the Greenland School Board closed its elementary school in June. The former Winslow district was annexed into the Greenland district in 2004.
West Fork is closer to Winslow, and many Winslow students sought transfers to avoid a 17-mile bus ride to the Greenland campus.
Winslow students do have the option to request an interdistrict transfer from Greenland to West Fork. However, unlike with school choice applications, Greenland must approve interdistrict transfer requests before students are released.
Interdistrict transfers don't have racial requirements attached and can be filed at any time. School choice applications must be filed by July 1 with the district the student wants to attend.
Greenland could block transfers to West Fork to avoid losing per pupil funding from the state, amounting to about $5,700 per student for the 2007-08 school year.
Barrett said 10 students, classified as Native American and Hispanic, will be allowed to keep their school choice transfers from Winslow to West Fork.
School starts in both districts Aug. 20.
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