Arkansas House Panel Rejects School Choice Bill

LITTLE ROCK – An Arkansas House committee on Thursday rejected a proposed rewrite of the state’s school choice law, as lawmakers debated whether to delay changing the law until a federal appeals court rules on its constitutionality.

The plan, sponsored by Rep. Kim Hammer of Benton, would have allowed students to transfer out of their geographically determined districts under a variety of circumstances, such as when a student performs poorly on state exams or when the transfer would promote racial integration.

Lawmakers have been grappling with how to respond to a federal court ruling last year that struck down the state’s school choice law as unconstitutional.

The existing school choice law, adopted in 1989, aimed to prevent “white flight” by barring most transfers where a student wanted to switch into a district where a higher percentage of students were of his or her race. But the federal judge ruled that the law was unconstitutional in using race as the sole factor to determine whether a student could transfer schools.

The state’s appeal of the case is pending before the Eighth Circuit, which heard arguments in January.

At the House Education Committee hearing Thursday, a representative from the Attorney General’s office and the association of school administrators urged lawmakers to wait for guidance from the appeals court before moving ahead with the school choice proposals.

“We would like to get the Eighth Circuit decision in because we feel like it will address a lot of the questions that come up in this difficult area,” said Assistant Attorney General Scott Richardson. “It’s very difficult to determine what the state’s obligations are going forward.”

Hammer said after the vote that he thought lawmakers on the panel had opted for a “wait and see” approach in rejecting his proposal.

Lawmakers are also considering two other bills that would rewrite the school choice law.

The author of one of those proposals, Sen. Johnny Key, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said the rejection of Hammer’s proposal and concerns about changing the law while the case is pending won’t change his plans to move forward with his bill. He said he planned to ask for a vote next week before the Senate panel on his school choice bill, which would remove the racial component.

Opponents of Key’s proposal said that if lawmakers eliminate race as a factor in school transfers, they will end up with segregated school districts. Arkansas has a history of struggling with desegregation issues.

A competing proposal by Sen. Joyce Elliot, D-Little Rock, would allow individual school districts to exempt themselves from the school choice program if they thought it would be harmful to their district. The Senate Education committee has debated Elliot’s bill but it has yet to vote on the proposal.

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