Here are excerpts from recent editorials in Arkansas newspapers:
Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. April 20, 2019.
Haas Hall Academy, the Northwest Arkansas public charter school that’s been wildly successful in educating its student body, sat through another round of taking its lumps the other day.
If the state Board of Education was on the LinkedIn social media app, among its hobbies might be listed “Throttling Haas Hall officials over its diversity shortcomings.” It has happened fairly regularly.
That’s not to say, however, that the state panel doesn’t have a point.
In every other aspect of educating kids, Haas Hall is deserving of praise and recognition. But the four-campus charter school has struggled to produce a student body that looks like the demographics of Northwest Arkansas or the public school districts from which it draws students. It’s also failed, so far, to satisfy members of the Board of Education that its efforts to reverse that reality have been adequate.
The school has a stellar reputation, but it is to a degree sullied by continued questions about whether its approach to education is innovative or if its student body is just made up of top-tier, highly intelligent students who would likely be successful no matter where they pursued their high school diplomas. As long as the diversity of its student population falls short of expectations, there will be those who wonder.
“We want you to show us that you can do this for all kids,” said Johnny Key, the state’s commissioner of education.
The good news is Key offered - and Haas Hall founder Martin Schoppmeyer embraced - the state’s help in showing the school can produce impressive results “no matter which kids are coming.”
Haas Hall does not appear to have ignored the Board of Education’s past admonitions. Schoppmeyer and other school officials recently detailed its efforts to increase diversity in its student body: Promoting the school through local festivals and events that draw audiences of minority populations; advertising strategically; sending mailers out that target minority families. The school also says it’s pushing to get employment opportunities in front of potential Latino and black employees. Schoppmeyer himself said he’s in the process of becoming a certified diversity professional from a national organization.
One Board of Education member, Fitz Hill, however, questioned whether Haas Hall has the personnel or expertise needed to drive dramatic change in its student body. That, it seems, would include people who look and speak like the populations the school is desperately in need of reaching.
“Unless I’m missing something, I don’t think you have those individuals. And until you do, I can’t accept what you’re doing,” Hill said.
Among the challenges for Haas Hall is how to produce more applicants from minority populations. A few weeks ago, the school held its lottery for 501 available spots in its four schools. Haas Hall received 1,560 applications. The applications don’t ask about race, gender or other types of classification information. In theory, however, if more applicants are coming from minority populations are, more minorities will make it through the lottery selection process.
What seems clear from the frequent bashing from the commission in Little Rock is Haas Hall can’t keep doing what it has been doing. It’s not enough. But it’s good to hear Commissioner Key offer help to identify specific actions Haas Hall can take to satisfy the commission.
Ultimately, the proof will be in what the student bodies of Haas Hall Academy’s campuses look like. In the meantime, however, commissioners won’t be satisfied absent some specific and aggressive actions that create the incubator necessary for producing more diverse student bodies in the future.
Intentionality can be shown through specific hiring decisions. It will be far easier for Haas Hall to produce results in diversifying the student body when the faculty and staff looks as diverse as the greater population that surrounds the schools’ campuses.
Why is this anyone’s business? Haas Hall isn’t a private school. It’s a public school, authorized to receive state taxpayer funding. While charter schools are free of some regulatory burdens regular public schools must adhere to, they are not free from accountability and their promise is to demonstrate innovation in the business of education Arkansas kids.
The commission is basically saying let’s put the “I’’ in team: Innovation and intentionality.
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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. April 22, 2019.
Some of us are old enough to remember when the sergeants would yell, “Smoke ’em if ya got ’em!” after morning PT. And advertisements told of the benefits of smoking cigarettes.
And even ashtrays in the newsrooms! Kids, we’re not kidding. Folks used to smoke in the newsroom. In fact, everybody smoked in the newsroom. And you couldn’t go to the barber shop without walking by at least one spittoon.
Those were the bad old days in smokin’, chewin’, and spittin’ Arkansas, and not just Arkansas, where an office wasn’t complete without standing ashtrays, about hand high.
How 1994. We’re so much younger than that now.
If you want to know how far (away) we’ve come from smoking being considered cool, take a look at who’s suggesting raising the age to buy tobacco products: Mitch McConnell.
That is, a senator from Kentucky.
Kentucky! It wasn’t that long ago that tobacco was a big deal in rural Kentucky, and politicians from that state sang its praises, and the praises of the little farmer makin’ a livin’ scrapin’ by on dried tobacco. Now a Kentucky politician is leading the way to raise the age from 18 to 21 just to buy a pack of Lucky Strikes. (Do they still sell Lucky Strikes?) Oh, how the mighty and deadly have fallen.
Some of us have no problem going all Carrie Nation on tobacco, in the abstract. Cigarettes are the nation’s leading cause of preventable diseases—and that’s just from smoking. No telling how many others die from chewin’ and dippin’, and nobody knows the harm vaping may be doing. So those who want to carry a hatchet (figuratively) to this fight, let’s Carrie A. Nation!
But let’s do it state by state.
Does Mitch McConnell have to make a federal case out of this? The papers say 12 states have already enacted laws raising the minimum wage to buy smokes to 21. In our considered editorial opinion, the next time the General Assembly meets in Little Rock, it can raise the age to 31. Or 51. Or 101. Or ban the damnable things outright. But such a decision really should be
Some of us still believe in federalism, which is what States Rights used to be called before the unreconstructed Confederates got a-holt of the phrase. States Rights used to mean just that, before it lost credibility after those words were regularly used as cover to violate the constitutional rights of others.
But the underlying principle of federalism is still valid. The Hon. Mr. Justice Brandeis once coined the phrase “laboratories of democracy” when it came to these several states. So let them tinker.
The states are doing just that with marijuana, a much more dangerous drug than cigarettes, no matter what the stoners might say in their echo chamber, which probably echoes louder with every toke. We the Rest of the People can see the damages that recreational dope causes in states like Colorado, then use that state as an example. One to emulate or beware.
You know tobacco has taken a large fall when Kentucky politicians start in on it. Tobacco ain’t what it used to be, thank God. But the states can handle its final demise. Like many of its users, tobacco seems to be on its last legs.
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Texarkana Gazette. April 23, 2019.
Since Amendment 98 to the Arkansas State Constitution - the legalization of medical marijuana - was approved by voters in November 2016, potential users have been waiting for state to get the program up and running.
The amendment came with a lot of red tape. First there was the long and contentious process of licensing growers and dispensaries. Then, since the pot could not be brought across state lines, there was a wait while the first crop was ready. Now it looks like the state’s first legal marijuana will appear on dispensary shelves by May 12. A few dispensary shelves, that is.
So far only one marijuana dispensary - Doctors Orders RX in Hot Springs - has passed required inspection by the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement agency. It and maybe one to four other dispensaries are expected to be ready by the time the crop is delivered. The rest - 32 statewide eventually - still have a way to go before being allowed to open.
So even those residents approved to buy medical marijuana will still have a wait_unless they want to travel.
We expect many to be disappointed even if the product is delivered at a few places by May 12. Only one of the state’s five growing facilities is ready for harvest. Two others have started growing and the other two haven’t put a seed in the ground. So we doubt in those first few days there will be enough supply to meet demand.
So, once again, prospective patients will have to have patience.
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