“Everyone wants to talk about excellence in education. But, it will take each of us: parents, educators, and legislators – all Arkansans – to combine our efforts and achieve that excellence. Just as the number-one priority of the federal government is protecting the nation from threats, both foreign and domestic, so, too, is our State’s primary responsibility the education of our people. Under the Constitution, it has to be our first legal obligation. Under the mandate of preparing for our future, it is our first moral obligation.”

~ Governor Mike Beebe

 

Just as ARKids First provides health care for children in need to help ensure that they lead healthy lives, the Arkansas Better Chance program for pre-k students will provide pre-kindergarten education to children at-risk, preparing them to begin school ready to learn. Governor Mike Beebe’s plan continues the unprecedented support for education begun in 2003, and Beebe’s budget proposal for 2007-2008 dramatically increases funding of the Arkansas Better Chance Program for pre-K children. A recently released independent study shows that the Arkansas Better Chance program has produced significant improvements in literacy, early language and math skills of pre-kindergarten students.

Arkansas will no longer be satisfied with the legal requirement of adequacy in education, but will strive for the moral imperative of providing excellence in all areas of education. The Governor’s budget proposal provides resources to address the mandate of the Supreme Court for adequacy under the foundation funding formula for schools and moves Arkansas schools beyond adequacy and toward excellence with a significant increase in funding of K-12 programs, including teacher salaries. After using one-time funds to support the Division of Educational Facilities and Transportation, the budget provides a stable and continuing source of general revenue to enhance the administrative component necessary for the facility and transportation needs of our schools.

• Parental Involvement

Parents must be able to interact with their children’s teachers. Therefore, they must be given appropriate time-off from work to do this. Governor Beebe proposes that state government must lead by example and permit state employees in the executive branch one day of paid leave each year to volunteer in their children’s schools or attend parent-teacher conferences.

• Technology in the Classroom

In today’s world, just learning to type on a keyboard won’t suffice. Our kids deserve broadband infrastructure that connects them to the Internet and provides technology equity. Therefore, we must undertake an up-to-date assessment of all technology resources in our schools, finding those areas that need improvement, and monitoring how resources are used. Additionally, the Arkansas Department of Education and the Department of Information Services will formulate a timeline to ensure that every child has safe access to the online world.

• Helping Rural Schools

Any education plan that addresses the needs of our children must also ensure teacher quality. That means building a Traveling Teachers program, so that schools can pool their resources to share teachers in specialized subject areas, primarily to assist our small or rural schools.

• Recruiting and Retaining the Best Teachers

Assuring teacher quality will require attracting and retaining top-quality teachers and continually upgrading the teacher-mentor model, as well as launching a pilot program for comprehensive alternative pay.

With these recommendations in place, school districts will have the resources necessary to produce high-school graduates ready for higher education and the highly skilled jobs that will be the future of our economy.

• Investment in Higher Education

Education shouldn’t stop after high school. In Governor Mike Beebe’s first budget proposal, he calls for an increase in state funding for our colleges and universities. He has included an overall ten-percent increase in funding each year of the biennium for the Institutions of Higher Education, including a two-percent cost-of-living allowance for classified and unclassified positions. This continues the necessary investment in higher education Arkansas needs to remain competitive in the world’s economy. Governor Beebe’s budget proposal funding is 2.5 percent above the overall state budget increase. This recommendation also follows the college-model funding formula adopted to address funding equity among all the schools.

• Need-based Scholarships

Young people with the talent and the ability to pursue higher education in Arkansas should not be hindered by a lack of resources. Therefore, Governor Beebe’s budget recommendations also include using existing balances in the Higher Education Grants Fund to initiate a $1,000 college scholarship program for high-school graduates from low-income families. These additional students can be added to our grant and scholarship programs without having to increase the general revenue budget.

• Helping Returning Students

To extend the opportunity for more students to immediately pursue higher education after high school, Beebe has proposed expanding access for qualifying students through the successful Career Pathways initiative by increasing it to all 22 community colleges across Arkansas from the 11 that currently exist.

 

“Everyone wants to talk about excellence in education, but it will take each of us: parents, educators, legislators, and every Arkansan to combine our efforts and achieve that excellence.”

~ Governor Mike Beebe