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| | Consolidation measure to become law
Wednesday, Jan 28, 2004 By David Robinson Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Gov. Mike Huckabee announced Tuesday that he reluctantly would allow the Legislature's school consolidation bill to become law without his signature. "If this is what they want to put their signature on and their stamp on, then I should let them do it," Huckabee told reporters. "Even though I think that's pathetically less than what we ought to be shooting for, it will let the public see that that's the best they could offer." Also Tuesday, in a news conference that touched on a number of issues related to the now eight-week-old special session, the governor accused the Legislature of taunting the Arkansas Supreme Court. Huckabee and a minority of lawmakers had made it a priority since January 2003 to consolidate nearly 200 of the state's 308 school districts as a way to afford a broader curriculum at the high school level. Huckabee, who still may ask voters to consider his plan to consolidate districts of fewer than 1,500 students, said consolidation would help the state afford the Arkansas Supreme Court's education improvements that it ordered in November 2002. The Legislature has balked at that plan as well as a compromise but last week adopted one that would consolidate districts of fewer than 350 students. Arkansas has 59 districts with fewer than 350 students. The governor said he wanted to veto the measure, House Bill 1109, but figured it would only delay the process and that the Legislature ultimately would override it. Huckabee's decision not to veto the bill helps clear the way for serious consideration of other education issues because lawmakers on both sides of the emotional consolidation issue were awaiting its outcome. "I think the consolidation issue is out of the way, and I'm certainly pleased to hear that the governor will let it become law," House Speaker Herschel Cleveland, D-Paris, said. "I think with that out of the way that we have a lot better opportunity to go ahead and raise some funding." Plainview-Rover Superintendent and Arkansas Rural Education Association president Jimmy Cunningham said he wasn't surprised by Huckabee's announcement. "We owe it to our legislators, whether we agree with HB 1109 or not, who have come up with a proposal that will not move our kids, and that's the bottom line," Cunningham said. The measure only mandates administrative consolidations, not the merger of schools. It leaves that decision up to the new administration and school board. Huckabee said he is considering taking his own plan - which he said Tuesday likely would have a 1,500-student threshold - to voters, although he said it would be a difficult and expensive venture. He said he is exploring how a ballot initiative would be worded and trying to gauge the enthusiasm for such an effort from individuals, businesses and corporations. "It's one thing for people to say 'I hope you do it,' it's another to say 'and I'll help you pay for it,'" Huckabee said. Meanwhile, Cleveland disputed some of the governor's allegations regarding the Legislature's posture following last week's decision by the Supreme Court to appoint a special master. Huckabee, the House speaker and the Senate president pro tempore are among the defendants in the school funding case and are represented by Attorney General Mike Beebe. Huckabee said he is ready to abide by the court's 2002 order to make Arkansas' education system constitutional, while the Legislature, in special session since Dec. 8, has failed to do so. "I was especially troubled by some of the intemperate and frankly caustic remarks leveled at the court by members of the Legislature, and quite frankly I don't want to be seated at the same table in the courtroom when that's the spirit that my attorney would have to represent," Huckabee said. Huckabee said he and the Legislature as a whole are polarized, which led him to seek Leon Holmes as the executive branch's attorney instead of the attorney general's office. Beebe gave his blessing to the idea late Tuesday but said the cost would have to be borne by the governor's office. Asked for specifics about his differences with the Legislature, Huckabee cited lawmakers' inability to approve significant reform, such as consolidation and the taxes needed to support a new school funding formula. He also cited as an example, a bill by Cleveland, House Bill 1077, which he said would gut the Omnibus Education Act approved by lawmakers last year. The Omnibus Education Act gives the state Board of Education the authority to consolidate districts that don't meet state education standards. Cleveland said his bill would only allow appeals of board decisions to be made in the judicial districts in which the affected school districts are located. "To say that guts the Omnibus (act) is absolutely a frivolous statement," Cleveland said. Huckabee also said there's been "hallway talk" among lawmakers about cutting the seven Supreme Court justices' retirement benefits and even impeachment. He said the Legislature is "taunting the judges and all but daring them to do something." Cleveland has questioned Chief Justice Betty Dickey's participation in the case because until last month she was Huckabee's chief legal counsel. But Cleveland said he hasn't heard the kind of Capitol hallway threats that Huckabee mentioned. "I have never heard of any effort to do those sort of things," he said. "I don't know where that's coming from. I doubt that that's coming from the Legislature at all. Surely I would hear about it." However, Rep. Jimmy "Red" Milligan, D-Yellville, said later that he had heard such conversations, and he wouldn't rule it out. "I heard it mentioned at one point," he said. "I hadn't heard any serious consideration of it. However, that's always an option the Legislature would have since they fund those things." |
