Friday, January 19, 2007
Little Rock school woes
Since your state government sends big steaming hot piles of money to the public schools of Pulaski County, it is big news when there are problems inside the Little Rock school district. Lately, the black majority has been flexing some muscle and some folks are uncomfortable about it. I guess those four members are a gang in the same way as congressional Republicans were until early November. Democracy can be inconvenient.
It troubles me to be on the same side of anything with Melanie Fox, who is the full time servant of big money and the same special interests that have run the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau into the ground. The old guard is certainly right about one thing. There is a pressing need to get the desegregation case closed. Alas, that can not happen if the district is cooking the books on African-American students’ academic performance.
The board’s majority is probably right to crack down on Roy Brooks and wrong to drag its’ feet on unitary status. One of these days, the state legislature is going to get totally fed up and force a takeover of the district. That might be a positive development. Both sides of the school board need to do some long hard soul-searching.
(Broadcast January 18, 2007)
It troubles me to be on the same side of anything with Melanie Fox, who is the full time servant of big money and the same special interests that have run the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau into the ground. The old guard is certainly right about one thing. There is a pressing need to get the desegregation case closed. Alas, that can not happen if the district is cooking the books on African-American students’ academic performance.
The board’s majority is probably right to crack down on Roy Brooks and wrong to drag its’ feet on unitary status. One of these days, the state legislature is going to get totally fed up and force a takeover of the district. That might be a positive development. Both sides of the school board need to do some long hard soul-searching.
(Broadcast January 18, 2007)
