Fort Smith Schools Superintendent voices concerns over school choice bill

Fort Smith Public Schools (FSPS) Superintendent Dr. Doug Brubaker voiced concerns over pending school choice legislation at Friday’s (Jan. 27) legislative forum presented by the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The Arkansas Parental Empowerment for Education Choice Act of 2017 by Rep. Jim Dotson, R-Bentonville, would allow nonprofits to establish education savings accounts for eligible students. Donors to those nonprofits could make donations that would be tax deductible on their state taxes. The nonprofits would be qualified by the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA). Contributors could not designate recipients.

Parents could apply to those organizations to establish those accounts and be funded equivalent to each academic year’s public school foundation funding, which is $6,646 in fiscal year 2017. The money could be used for tuition and fees at a private school, textbooks, contributions to a college savings account or for college classes, and other expenses. Parents could even contract with school districts to take courses or extracurricular activities. Funds could be carried over from one year to the next and into the student’s college-going years.

State lawmakers were on hand Friday to discuss the pros and cons of the bill. Rep. Justin Boyd, R-Fort Smith, acknowledged the argument against it, including “that it’s going to hurt our public schools, and that in other parts of government where there is someone making a purchasing decision and using in essence taxpayers’ money, the money follows the consumer, whether that’s SNAP benefits or whether that’s Medicaid or what have you, so we’ve got to somehow reconcile those two arguments.”

Boyd added that the bill “is not completely undisputed yet” and that the education committee will be looking to other examples across the country. Pointing to an example in Milwaukee in which a similar allowance was denied, Boyd said that later economic analysis found “it was going to wind up costing that particular community a lot of money just because of how well some of these private schools are doing on graduation rates and so forth.”

He continued: “The higher the graduation rate, the less people go to prison, and ultimately that’s going to save taxpayers money.” In all, he said, Milwaukee would have realized a $473 million benefit from higher graduation rates through 2035 among choice students, “and that’s something we have to consider.”

Rep. Mat Pitsch, R-Fort Smith, acknowledged that “it may not be well-received among superintendents, and that’s a powerful group among legislators; but I do think there is a private industry in this state that’s ready for this.”

Even so, Pitsch said, it’s too early to tell which way the legislature will go with it.

“There is definitely consternation among the members of our caucus,” Pitsch said, adding that he didn’t “have a feel whether for or against. … It will be an interesting one. I see it less as a 90-10 and more as a 51-49 vote.”

Brubaker said while he has been working in the district less than 10 days and was still studying the issue, “There are a couple of questions that come up. With public money – when we talk about SNAP benefits and other things, do the same standards and accountability follow all the funds? The same goes here. Would they be required to take all students and not necessarily select, which can sometimes skew the statistics, to see if they’re successful or not? And what is the overall anticipated impact financially on the school districts and the scope of the programs?”

“Again,” Brubaker said, “I’m just getting familiar with the issue, but there is concern over anything that could potentially divert public funding to private schools, especially if there is not the same accountability in place.”