(Disclaimer: I work in the same department as the Office of Educational Policy.)

Since his election last year, President Obama has made it clear that education is one of his priorities.  Obama demonstrated his commitment to education reform when he appointed well known Chicago Public Schools reformer Arne Duncan to be Secretary of Education.  Then in February as part of the economic-stimulus package passed by congress, the Obama administration set aside $4.3 billion to be used to incentivize education reforms at the state level.  In an interesting wrinkle, states have been asked to compete to secure their portion of what the Department of Education is calling its Race to the Top Fund.  States who can provide evidence of their commitment to the specific reforms being emphasized by the Department of Ed will receive more funding.  Here is how Mr. Duncan put it in an interview on Wednesday, “This is not about getting in the game, this is about winning.  There will be a lot more losers than winners.”  Yesterday, the Department of Education released the finalized criteria against which the winners and losers will be judged. You can find the full document here or a summary here.  The stated goal of these criteria is to reward states for creating the conditions for education innovation and reform.  And, one of the specific criteria is that the states ensure successful conditions for high-performing charter schools and other innovative schools.  I assert that unless our State Board of Education improves its position on both of these items we will be among the losers.

I want to make it clear, I am not advocating the approval of all charter schools simply because we have the opportunity to secure federal money.  However, the State Board’s denial of all new applications in the presence of this incentive is further evidence of their anti-reform stance.  If a charter applicant submits an incomplete or insufficient application or there are legitimate concerns about the applicants character, then their application should most certainly be rejected. But, I find it highly unlikely that all of the new applications this year were flawed in this fundamental way.

Brenda Gullett is quickly establishing herself as the standard bearer of the anti-reform contingent on the Board.  One of the issues facing the Boad is the effect of charter schools on desegregation efforts in Little Rock.  At last month’s board meeting Board Chair Dr. Naccaman Williams asked that a faculty member from the University of Arkansas be allowed to present a report on this very subject.  Ms. Gullett quickly shot the proposal down with an ad hominem attack on the authors of the report.  Here is documentation of the exchange taken from the minutes of the meeting.  You can access agendas and minutes for Board meeting here.

Dr. Williams stated that the Office of Educational Policy (OEP) at the University of Arkansas has prepared a report on charter schools that might prove informative prior to the review of the next round of charter application. He suggested this report might be contained in a work session prior to the next meeting. Ms. Gullett stated that the research from OEP has been questioned by other informed groups and that there are opposing views. Ms. Gullett stated that it is her opinion that OEP is very pro charter schools and their reporting does not provide a balanced approach. Mr. Ledbetter observed that the next meeting will be very compressed due to the joint session and he does not believe that compressing the report or reports into a 15 minute time slot would be productive. He suggested sending any reports to the Board for personal review prior to the next meeting.

This disregard for evidence and a free exchange of ideas is disconcerting in a Board of Education member.  By the way it is fairly obvious who the “other informed groups” are.  I would bet a significant sum of money that she is referring to our old friend Chris Heller.  In this space we have defended the OEP report against unsupported claims made by Little Rock School District lawyer Chris Heller (the latest post is here).  We have raised a specific concern with his method of quantifying the level of segregation and assert that the OEP report, which is based on student level data, does a better more comprehensive job.  Both Heller and Gullett, on the other hand, ignore both the evidence and our methodological concerns, and engage in name calling and baseless attacks.  It is important to note neither Heller nor Gullett have yet to raise any substantive evidence based contentions with the OEP report.  The OEP report should be heard and evaluated on its merits.

As for Ms. Gullett, I believe she is clearly out of step with both the President and national Progressive Democratic movement.  If she does not change her stance on reform issues, the Governor should reevaluate her appointment.  And, if any other board members will not serve the state in a way that is not simply beholden to traditional public school administrators, then the Governor should take action to remove them, and appoint board members who will serve the children of Arkansas instead of the interests of adults.

UPDATE:  The Dem Gaz has an article today discussing Race to the Top.  You can find it here, but you will need a subscription.