At least among the school leaders, who are desperate to pass a new millage to build new schools:

Since voters approved a millage increase in 2003, the Springdale School District has opened eight new schools.
The district continues to grow, however, and administrators are concerned they may be reaching their limit on funding new schools with existing resources, Assistant Superintendent Allen Williams said.

Therefore, district administrators are beginning to discuss asking voters for a millage increase to build new schools, he told parents and staff Monday at the patrons shelf meeting.

“We’re looking at plans,” he said.

The district probably needs at least one new elementary school to start the 2011-12 school year, and probably a new middle school and junior high after that. It’s possible the east side schools may need portable buildings again if growth continues, Williams said.

Note that all this discussion of new taxes for new schools comes in the wake of Springdale sending six out of seven school board members and several superintendents down to Little Rock to argue against a perfectly good charter school proposal from an organization with a track record of success in Oklahoma.

A new charter school would have been free to Springdale; no new millage would have been needed. But Springdale school leaders lobbied against a free school.

To be sure, a new charter school would be “free” to Springdale only because Arkansas deprives charter schools of local funding (charter schools have to depend almost entirely on the $5,905 in state foundation funding). But unless that inequity is someday rectified, there’s no excuse for Springdale school leaders to oppose a good charter school one day and then beg for more tax money the next.