LITTLE ROCK - Superintendents from some of Arkansas' largest school districts are debating a split from the state's major school administrators group, concerned an overhaul in public education will leave them short-changed.
Frank Anthony, the superintendent at Pine Bluff and the president of the Arkansas Association of School Administrators, said Monday that he and leaders of other large districts will decide soon whether the organization's stance against Gov. Mike Huckabee's reform plan is best for their students and patrons.
"Superintendents who oversee 80 percent of the state's student population need to be speaking up because it's likely patrons in their districts will be paying significantly higher taxes without one dime of it going to their schools," he said.
He said he didn't know whether the administrators group could remain unified through the debate.
Huckabee told The Associated Press late Monday that Anthony's statement was good news for his efforts to meet an Arkansas Supreme Court order to overhaul the state's unconstitutional education funding system.
The administrators' group has opposed Huckabee's opinion that, in general, districts with fewer than 1,500 students cannot meet academic and efficiency standards. He has suggested merging those districts' high schools to save costs and use the savings to improve education.
Rural legislators, at the urging of small districts' superintendents and their school patrons, helped reject Huckabee's plan during the regular legislative session this year.
Jimmy Cunningham, president of the Arkansas Rural Education Association and superintendent of the 308-student Plainview-Rover School District, said a split between large and small school district superintendents is likely.
"I see it coming to that. I'm real concerned about what it will do to our organization," he said. "It will be a sad day in the state of Arkansas if that happens."
Huckabee has said a school reform plan without a minimum enrollment number could make it impossible for Arkansas to meet the mandate. The court set a Jan. 1 deadline for legislators to find solutions.
And the governor has said he will delaying calling a special session unless and untill legislators can reach consensus on major reform issues before hand.
The administrators' association objected to a compromise proposal in the regular session. The compromise kept the 1,500 enrollment number but gave small districts numerous ways to remain intact and included other concessions pushed by the association.
Cunningham said the small and large school superintendents met last week and he said he hopes the groups will meet again before the large district superintendents issue their own position statement.
Cunningham said Huckabee's argument that taxpayers in large school districts will pay new taxes to enhance programs in small districts isn't true.
