The state Education Department’s double standard in evidence again – Arkansas Times

Here we go again.

A failing charter school, Southeast Preparatory High in Pine Bluff, recommended for closure for academic and financial problems, has been at least temporarily and perhaps permanently saved by the intervention of state Education czar, Johnny Key, and sympathetic members of the state Board of Education. Charter school champion Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.

Mercy for the Little Rock School District, with its many success stories and nothing like this disarray in its portfolio of schools? Forget about it. If the Waltons could just turn LRSD into an all-charter district, I’m guessing we’d hear more sympathy from Key and state Board members for the cries of anguish from  Little Rock parents over five years and counting of failed state control.

Also: No action of any consequence was taken by the state Board Thursday against the D-rated Arkansas Virtual Academy (a private investors’ cash spigot) expanded exponentially through Key’s legislative finagling back in his days in the state Senate.

The fix is in on education in Arkansas. It’s time for Little Rock to sue. Equal protection should have legal meaning, even in Arkansas.