The Arkansas State Board of Education approved the Little Rock Urban Collegiate Public Charter School for Young Men(LRUCP) on Monday making it the only new charter to gain board approval this year. The school will aim to serve underperforming children who are in danger of or have already dropped out.

While the State Board unanimously (7-0) passed the charter, it was not without conditions.  Heeding the advice of the Little Rock School District (I blogged about their recommendations here) the Board placed two stipulations on the new charter.

1. The school must undergo a 1-year review
2. The school must serve a student body that is 80% poor and 80% who score Basic or below on the State’s Benchmark tests

Board members Brenda Gullett and Ben Mays were the two most vocal opponents of the charter.  Clinton veterinarian Ben Mays raised questions about the completeness of the applicant’s paperwork.  Ms. Gullett seemed to be reading from the LRSD playbook, raising questions about the charter’s effect on desegregation.

I would be interested to hear how a school which hopes to have an enrollment of a few hundred would affect the desegregation efforts of a district with an enrollment of 25k plus.  But that is beside the point.

The real point here is that it sets a bad precedent to create schools which are legally mandated to be segregated, in this case by poverty status and achievement. The State already has a charter approval and review process which provides the State Board with rather broad powers.  If the school does not fulfill their mission, the State Board can revoke their charter.  Any further charter restrictions are unnecessary, and imposing them may lead to legal challenges.

In this specific case, I question the legality of creating a public school which is required to serve only poor, low achieving kids.  Throughout this debate, the District and their lawyer have continually conflated poverty and low performance with race.  This practice is extremely disappointing, and it is even more of a disappointment to see our State Board of Education tacitly endorse this backward way of thinking.

UPDATE:

Looks like the Dem Gaz editorial staff agrees with us.  Check out their opinion piece here.

Here is the Dem Gaz article about the State Board’s action yesterday.  Looks like several people share my concerns about the legality of the conditions placed on the new charter.