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Rural schools group expands, tries to sway Beebe on course offerings Saturday, Apr 15, 2006 By Aaron Sadler Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - An organization created to protect one rural high school announced Friday it would take a statewide role, and Attorney General Mike Beebe said he would meet with the group about his opposing view on legislation the group supported. The Paron Education Preservation Alliance changed its name to the Rural Education Preservation Alliance on Friday. Organization officials said in a news release the group would expand its mission to protection of all rural schools. The alliance asked Beebe in a letter to discuss with them his view that a bill to soften curriculum requirements in some high schools would harm the state in its ongoing school funding lawsuit. Beebe, who is the Democratic candidate for governor, said Friday he is willing to meet with the group. Concerns from Beebe's office and from the state Department of Education led to the defeat of House Bill 1014 by the Senate Education Committee during last week's special session. The bill, by Rep. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, would have waived a requirement that students be enrolled in each of the 38 core high school courses at some isolated high schools. The law would have affect the high school in the Paron School District, which consolidated with Bryant in 2004. Bryant officials have announced plans to close the Paron school, saying it would be financially inefficient to teach all 38 core courses at the 75-student high school. Hutchinson's bill would have allowed classes to be offered at certain isolated, consolidated schools by distance learning technology or other methods. Beebe said the bill would have been a step backward for state curriculum standards. "If you back off from that, you are treading in an area the court would find unconstitutional," Beebe said Friday after a speech to the Pulaski County Bar Association. His Republican opponent in the governor's race, Asa Hutchinson, said he thought the bill was a good compromise for Paron, which voluntarily consolidated with Bryant and was meeting state standards. Asa Hutchinson is Jeremy Hutchinson's uncle. Ron Crawford, spokesman for the new Rural Education Preservation Alliance, said his group hopes to stop a growing movement to close rural schools. "We recognize that some schools should be consolidated if they are failing either academically or financially," Crawford said. "But it has become clear from the last special session of the Legislature that a small band of insiders are intent on closing schools in our state regardless of their merit." The alliance has the support of a lawyer involved in the most recent Lake View school funding case. Chris Heller, who represented the Little Rock School District, said that HB 1014 would not affect the case because the Supreme Court has not attempted to establish any academic standards. |
