Fresh from traveling to the State Board of Education meeting to argue that a new charter school simply isn’t needed in Springdale, the Springdale school board met Tuesday to discuss . . . the need to open new elementary, middle, and junior high schools because of population growth.

The main reason for denying charters that was bandied about at the meeting in Little Rock was that the proposed charter school wasn’t innovative enough. That is, it wasn’t offering anything the district wasn’t already offering. From what I can tell, however, the new schools the Springdale board is considering will not provide anything different or more innovative than existing schools. By their own logic, they shouldn’t be allowed to create any new public schools either.

On another front,  Max Brantley continues to make the thoroughly debunked claim that charter schools harm desegregation efforts. At some point he will have to provide evidence for his assertions, right?  Or, I suppose he could just keep leaning on his tired old strawman of racist white parents who would do anything to get their kids away from the black kids. In Max’s version of this story, these parents would go so far as to start a PUBLIC, in the sense that anyone can attend, charter school.