The Walton plan for the Little Rock School District

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette this morning gave a few column inches to former Little Rock school chief Baker Kurrus’ thoughtful essay on the future of the School District, but “balanced” it with several more paragraphs on the ideas submitted by Gary Newton, identified as executive director of “a parent/school choice advocacy organization.”

Kurrus, a long-time School Board member and superintendent for a year, hardly needs an introduction. You can read here the entirety of his remarks about the charter school-fractured district and its heavy population of students with immense needs.

Those who follow the school district closely also know Newton, a former chamber of commerce employee who’s moved to a well-compensated career as promoter of the agenda of the Walton Family Foundation and other wealthy Arkansans intent on upending the Little Rock School District.

The Democrat-Gazette, both in its news and editorial columns, has become a reliable platform for Newton and so-called “choice” advocates. (Still no mention in that newspaper of some groundbreaking writing by UA school reformers about the inadvisability of state takeovers of public school districts, the failure in Arkansas’s management of LRSD being a case in point.)

Read more: https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2019/09/07/the-walton-plan-for-the-little-rock-school-district