The ?Huck Snatchers? Nab Governor (Gwen Moritz Commentary)

What have they done with our governor, the one who makes fun of anyone who thinks any government service is important enough to require a tax increase and responds to a court ruling on the state’s inadequate educational system by complaining about attorney fees?

Last Tuesday, a man who looked exactly like Mike Huckabee was speaking passionately about the need for sweeping education reforms in Arkansas, many of which will be difficult politically and some of which will be Expensive with a Capital E.

One of my most left-leaning friends heard his speech at the Downtown Little Rock Rotary Club and later asked, “What’s happened to me? I agreed with almost everything he said.”

As did I, as would almost anyone — regardless of political persuasion — who focuses on the solid common sense of most of his proposals. That most of them aren’t new ideas doesn’t take anything away from the debt of gratitude we owe to whomever performed this miraculous leadership transplant on the governor.

Some say it is the price Huckabee is having to pay to keep Jackson T. “Steve” Stephens Jr. out of the Republican gubernatorial primary. If so, I’m grateful to an ultraconservative for encouraging the governor to do something ultra-progressive. And I’m grateful to the governor for doing it.

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It will take awhile to understand what all Huckabee’s proposals mean. But this old education reporter can tell you the benign language masks some real hot potatoes. Translation:

• “Revise the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act to provide proper balance between protection of academic freedom and academic performance of students” means making it easier to fire crummy teachers. The teacher lobby won’t like that one bit, though most good teachers would wholeheartedly agree.

• “Restructure the current Arkansas testing system to include annual spring testing, creating valid student academic achievement growth comparisons from year to year” is a biggie. The governor is talking about “value-added” testing, which is the best way to measure teaching ability because it neither credits nor blames the teacher for what the child learned or failed to learn from previous teachers. Tennessee has a model program of value-added testing — except the teacher lobby there has successfully kept teacher-specific information out of the hands of parents. But another part of the governor’s plan says the state should “provide useful, timely academic performance data specifically concerning students, class (grade level), classroom teacher and school to parents and educators.” Expect sparks.

• “Expedite and expand the process of the Arkansas Comprehensive Testing Assessment and Accountability Program” means Ray Simon and the state Board of Education need to get off the dime with regard to districts like Elaine, Altheimer and Crawfordsville that have been failing to educate students for years.

• “Establish higher entry criteria for four-year colleges and universities” and “Offer remedial courses through the two-year colleges only” sounds good until you find out that he means your kid. But higher enrollment standards have worked wonders for the University of Arkansas, and kids can live up to expectations.

• “Spending categories would become part of the accountability program for school districts” and “Establish standards determining percentage of district funds which must be used for actual classroom instruction” mean getting elected to the school board in Helena-West Helena will no longer be tantamount to winning the fabulous vacation showcase on “The Price Is Right.” It also will mean that new football stadiums won’t take priority over teacher pay. The governor is acknowledging that locally elected school boards can’t always be trusted to do what’s best for their children. Expect indignant opposition from the school board and administrator associations, who won’t want the state meddling in how they spend their money.

• “Establish standards for access for all students for visual arts and theater” means nothing less than school consolidation. Districts that don’t have enough students or money to offer classes in theater and stagecraft will have to consolidate with other districts that can. It’s a backdoor to consolidation by a governor who has publicly opposed forced consolidation. Or maybe that was the old governor.