EYE ON ARKANSAS
Editorial n Two-thirds of the Arkansas congressional delegation seek to end Medicare, thereby calling “lights out” for millions of Americans dependent on the program for survival. If Wilbur Mills were still around, he’d be crying “Give me my country back!” Mills, the influential congressman from Kensett, guided Medicare through Congress in 1965, the greatest triumph of his long and distinguished career, and among the great moments in American history. Before Medicare and Social Security — another Democratic program, enacted 30 years earlier — America’s elderly were considered redundant. The sooner they died of the ailments to which old people are subject, the sooner they would be out of the way of the profit-making enterprises of young go-getters. Why extend the lives, Republicans asked, of those no longer fit for barge-toting and bale-lifting. Medicare and Social Security have allowed the old to live their final years with some degree of dignity, rather than begging on street corners, sleeping in parks, or being passed from one unwelcoming relative to another before burial in a pauper’s grave. American exceptionalism has never been more evident than in its aid to needy senior citizens. There is no comparable program in Afghanistan or the Congo or any of the other backward countries that Republicans want the U.S. to emulate. Three members of the six-member Arkansas delegation — Reps. Womack, Griffin and Crawford — have turned thumbs down on the old folks, and John Boozman will join them when the House-approved bill comes before the Senate. The end of Medicare is part of a Republican Party-endorsed budget bill, and Senator Boozman votes an unvarying party line. Only Rep. Mike Ross and Sen. Mark Pryor stand up for elderly Arkansans. The Republican budget would not only quash Medicare, it would reduce money for Medicaid and convert that program for the poor into an unsustainable block-grant scheme. It would privatize Social Security. It would enact even greater tax cuts for the very rich, who already scarcely pay, and it would assure greater profits for private insurance companies. The Center on Budget and Policy priorities says the Republican plan would “produce the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S. history, while increasing poverty and inequality more than any measure in recent times and possibly in the nation’s history.” “Disastrous” is too mild a word for the plan, “shameful” too mild for those who support it. “Live sicker, die quicker and don’t bicker,” they tell us. Stealing our money is not enough for them. They would steal our pride, our independence, our America. The very stoutest resistance is mandatory.
201 East Markham Street, 200 Heritage Center West, P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, Arkansas 72203 Home page: http://www.arktimes.com • E-mail: arktimes@arktimes.com PUBLISHER Alan Leveritt EDITOR
MUSIC EDITOR
ADVERTISING TRAFFIC MANAGER Roland R. Gladden
PHOTOGRAPHER
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
ADVERTISING COORDINATOR
ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR
Devon Dennis Erik Heller Katherine Smith Daniels Angie Wilson
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
REAL ESTATE SALES EXECUTIVE
Robert Curfman
Tiffany Holland
CIRCULATION DIRECTOR
John Tarpley
MANAGING EDITOR
Brian Chilson
Leslie Newell Peacock
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Tiffany Holland
Max Brantley
Mara Leveritt
ASSOCIATE EDITORS David Koon Bob Lancaster Gerard Matthews Doug Smith
Mike Spain
ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Patrick Jones
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Rafael Méndez Doug Benjamin Bryan Moats
CLASSIFIED SALES EXECUTIVE
Kelly Schlachter Tracy Whitaker
IT DIRECTOR
Anitra Hickman
Challis Muniz
CONTROLLER
DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING
AUTOMOTIVE ADVERTISING MANAGER
BILLING/COLLECTIONS
EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR
SPECIAL PROJECTS
SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR
Kai Caddy
Michelle Miller, Manager
Kelly Ferguson
OFFICE MANAGER
LIFESTYLE EDITOR Lindsey Millar
Phyllis A. Britton
Heather Baker
Weldon Wilson Linda Phillips
Angie Fambrough
PRODUCTION MANAGER Ira Hocut (1954-2009)
association of alternative newsweeklies
FOR SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE CALL: (501) 375-2985
16 APRIL 20, 2011 • ARKANSAS TIMES
BRIAN CHILSON
Congressional death panel
SPRING STORMS: Storm damage piles up outside a home in Little Rock. A deadly line of storms passed through Arkansas early last Friday, killing seven. More severe weather is expected this week.
Charter schools’ hidden agenda n A recent study by researchers at Western Michigan University revealed an unpleasant side of the charter school movement. Charter schools are privately operated schools that receive tax dollars from the state for each student they enroll. The advocates for charters like to frame them as public schools offering an alternative to the “other public schools.” In fact they are private schools unencumbered by many of the laws that local public schools must follow and the same oversight. For example, charter schools do not have elected school boards accountable to the local community. What happens when there is little accountability? The study from Western Michigan provides one insight. The Western Michigan Study looked at data from 60 of the 99 Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) schools. They only looked at 60 schools because the data wasn’t available for the other 39 schools in the national data base. The KIPP schools enroll a significantly higher proportion of African-American students than the local districts they draw from. As reported in Education Week, the Western Michigan study found that 40 percent of the black males drop out of KIPP schools between grades 6 and 8. Gary Miron at Western Michigan stated that: “The dropout rate for African-American students is really shocking.” The KIPP program is highly rigorous and requires all students to attend a longer school day, sometimes up to 9 total hours. The students are required to attend school every other Saturday and for an extended period during the summer. Miron concluded that KIPP does a good job with those students who can “persevere” the highly regimented KIPP program, but they do not serve well all who come. What happens to the students who can’t deal with the rigor of the KIPP program? They return to the regular public schools. Many years ago, as a brand new teacher, I accepted my first job teaching in East Los Angeles, which is one of the poorest and most violent urban areas in the Unit-
Paul Hewitt ed States. The school where I taught had extremely low test scores, yet the educational program was one of the best I experienced. Many of our students went on to Ivy League schools and had exceptional careers. Yet based on test scores, this school was a failure. On many occasions the topic of conversation in the faculty room focused on what our school would be like if we could just transfer out (or run off) about 20 percent of the students and keep the “good kids.” We all knew that this would make a major difference and our test scores would soar. But, we were a conventional public school and this wasn’t a possibility. The Western Michigan Study also found that the KIPP schools received, on average, about $6,500 per student more than the local public school. This money comes from private foundations, like the Walton Foundation, which pour millions into the support of charter schools and the movement to privatize public education. Just imagine if the regular public schools in your community were given an extra $6,500 by civic minded foundations. Now, imagine the impact on the public school test scores if 60 percent of the most undisciplined students could be encouraged to transfer elsewhere. (Maybe the charter schools would welcome them?) The headlines about highly successful public schools would dominate the news. However, the American people and a nation built on equality for all would never tolerate such an unethical charade. Would we? Dr. Paul Hewitt is an assistant professor of educational leadership, curriculum and instruction at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.