Arkansas Public School Desegregation Lawsuit Resolution Task Force – August 25, 2009
Posted on August 25th, 2009
Date & Time: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 9:30 AM
Location: Room 151, State Capitol
Agenda: http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/Lists/Meetings/Attachments/12034/I7751.pdf
Attachments: none
Related news articles:
- Ending aid to county schools is proposed
- Ark. AG suggests phasing out desegregation funds
- PCSSD Considers State Settlement Offer
- Ark. AG proposes phasing out deseg settlement
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- McDaniel issues deseg demand
9:30 am – Meeting called to order.
9:33 am – Attorney General Dustin McDaniel is providing an update on the status of the desegregation litigation.
9:34 am – A.G. McDaniel wants to put away accusations made by the school attorneys during the last meeting that the A.G. had not been diligent in pursuing the resolution.
9:36 am – Act 395 of 2007 was to provide a route and incentive toward settlement until the lawsuit was resolved.
9:37 am – It was assumed that there would be a great deal of pressure to take steps toward resolution. The school district did nothing until the first movements occured, and at that time, the school districted demanded that they be paid everything.
9:39 am – In the mean time the lawsuit was upheld that the school was unitary. The state has pushed forward, and considered filing for immediate discontinuation of funding.
9:41 am – Recusals and car wrecks have delayed getting back in court, A.G. McDaniel says he does not blame anyone for the delays.
9:43 am – A.G. McDaniel has sought legislative guidance on proper course of action. Has prepared an offer of settlement. This is what the press reports linked above are about.
9:45 am – One of the main concerns of the legislators and the people in the state is that there is no ending date.
9:47 am – A.G. McDaniel is concerned that the school district do the proper things to prepare financially for the loss of revenue.
9:48 am – A.G. McDaniel says that his goal is to see an ending strategy in his time (assuming he gets reelected..)
9:49 am – McDaniel says that it is the opinion of the A.G.’s office that this case will not settle, and it will require litigation. He said that he will be pushing this forward aggressively.
9:51 am – A.G. McDaniel does not believe there is a valid nexus between the charter schools in the area as it relates to the desegregation lawsuit. He is not placing much credence on the argument made by the schools attorney during the last meeting.
9:54 am – You can see my live-blog of the last meeting here: http://www.offthemarble.com/2009/07/14/desegregation-litigation-oversight-subcommittee-july-14-2009/
9:55 am – Sen. Thompson is pointing out that if the school district loses the lawsuit, then there has been a wind down period. A.G. McDaniel confirmed that there is a wind down but says it is has been short and is making the point that the current settlement offer will be quite a bit better than if it goes to litigations.
9:58 am – Sen. Thompson hoped that if it does goes to litigation instead of settlement that the payments would end as quickly as possible. He voiced the opinion that the offer by the A.G. is very generous.
10:01 am – Sen. Salmon is voicing disagreement with the chair. She said that this money have gone to make things better for the children of Little Rock. [What is not said is how much children in Hughes, Earle, and Helena may have been impacted by this money being continually spent in Little Rock instead of the Delta.]
10:04 am – A.G. McDaniel is saying that we did indeed have a problem, and is voicing his disagreement with the Supreme Court decision in the Seattle Washington desegregation case.
10:08 am – Sen. Steele is reminding everyone of how we got here in the first place. He advised the A.G. to start his presenations as he finished in the future.
10:09 am – Sen. Steele is reminding the legislators of the “Soveriegnty Commission.” All three of the school districts in this lawsuit are in his senate district. He is voicing his opposition to charter schools. He says that the charter schools draw the brightest students away from the regular school district and that effects the way they are graded by the state. [Charter Schools are funded at a much lower rate than the regular schools. Charter schools do not recieve millage funding from property taxes. If the regular school district cannot compete with a school that does a better job with less money, why shouldn't students be allow to "escape" to that charter school.]
10:16 am – A.G. McDaniel is pointing out that charter schools are not really relevent to the case at hand. He then went into something that sounded more like a campaign speech, in essence he is admitting the moral failures of the intentional segregation.
10:19 am – Sen. Steele is asking the A.G. to not take a position on charter schools. [The A.G. has to take whatever position the laws of Arkansas actually are, as established by the legislature. For the A.G. to go out on his own opinions or those of Sen. Steele would be a failure to do his job.]
10:21 am – McDaniel is making the point that the laws have changed from how we have always interpreted. He said there WILL eventually be a decision on our school choice laws in light of the Seattle ruling.
10:24 am – He makes the point that we do need to take measures to insure that we do not end up with “defacto” segregation.
10:25 am – What is the deal with calling the Attorney General by the title “General”. Is that an Arkansas thing? I don’t recall that title being applied to the A.G. until Beebe.
10:27 am – Sen Kim Hendren is asking what the word recusal means than how many judges had recused themselves. It because the judge believes that he as a conflict of interest and cannot make an objective/impartial decision. Sen. Henderen believes that we the voters deserve to know why. I get the feeling there are unspoken suspicions as to why they are recusing, but I can’t pick up what they are.
10:32 am – Apparently one of the judges has recused from all cases involving the Arkansas A.G. Senator Hendren wanted to know what we are paying the guy to do then. A.G. McDaniel makes the point that those were federal issues and declined answering that.
10:34 am – Sen. Hendren makes the point that he agrees that the lower achieving students deserve the opportunty participate in a charter school and we should pursue establishing those types of charter schools. He asked for confirmation from the A.G. that the Charter School issue is not relevent to the desegregation litigation.
10:36 am – Sen. Hendren must have a book of stuff he wants to talk about. He has been going for 10 minutes….. not sure he has even taken a breath.
10:38 am – Rep. Hyde says this committee is schedule to meet about every 30 days for the remainder of the year.
10:40 am – Sen. Luker is making the point that the divisiveness of this issue has impacted our ability to resolve problems of the 7 school districts that recieved an F grade on a recent report. Five of those school districts are in his Senate district. [In my opinion, Sen. Luker is exactly correct, I mentioned that point above.] Here is a link to that report: http://www.arkansaspolicyfoundation.org/policy/090817SchoolDistrictRankings0708.pdf
10:45 am – Rep. Williams seems to be asking questions about the A.G. litigation strategy. Rep. Williams was Chief Deputy A.G. under Mark Pryor. A.G. McDaniel is talking about a comprehensively reviewing the finances of the school districts and creating a phase out plan. He is making the point that the State Supreme Court in the Lakeview decision demanding that we (the legislature) “show the math.” He will be seeking accountability and request that the districts “show the math” so that when year eight arrives, they will be ready for it.
10:51 am – Sen. Whitaker is asking if performance based metrics could be placed in conditions of settlements. It is a brilliant idea! A.G. says there are two questions to be answered. Can we? and Should we? Essentially he said we can. He didn’t seem to think we should. He seemed to present a false dilemma of raising test scores with declining revenues. But I think that misses the point that Sen Whitaker made, that the school district could have the opportunity to extend the length of time of additional funding they receive IF they make advances in performance metrics. He does make a good point that it would not be a good idea to muddle the issue of seeking a definite resolution of the issue.
11:04 am – Currently reviewing the Dept. of Education Desegregation Settlement Summary of Stat Costs for Fiscal Years 1989 to 2009.
Here is the payments each year:
- 1988-89 – $11,953,822.87
- 1989-90 – $31,681,535.06
- 1990-91 – $33,895,475.87
- 1991-92 – $35,235,767.15
- 1992-93 – $33,375,297.81
- 1993-94 – $35,318,871.10
- 1994-95 – $35,905,919.83
- 1995-96 – $28,753,945.81
- 1996-97 – $32,363,355.08
- 1997-98 – $29,329,871.04
- 1998-99 – $50,817,129.84
- 1999-00 – $51,815,005.26
- 2000-01 – $41,833,627.96
- 2001-02 – $43,032,961.42
- 2002-03 – $49,488,547.26
- 2003-04 – $51,966,321.79
- 2004-05 – $53,327,547.30
- 2005-06 – $57,730,758.51
- 2006-07 – $63,832,552.43
- 2007-08 – $57,373,420.36
- 2008-09 – $67,451,985.75
- Grand Total – $896,483,719.50
11:19 am – The Little Rock School District recieved $550,387,612.65, North Little Rock School District recieved $81,856,570.02, and the Pulaski County School District recieved $264,239,536.83 of the above grand total, that is on top of the same funding that every other school district in the state gets, and still yet they get “C” grades for performance.
11:22 am – Meeting adjourned.
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