Waltons: Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Waltons working on school takeover in Massachusetts

Max Brantley — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:47:00 -0500

The Walton family effort to redesign publicly financed schools in their image — they prefer essentially privatized operations unanswerable to elected school boards and stripped of teacher association representation, preferably with "out-counseling" of difficult students to the remnant real public schools — is familiar by now in Arkansas.

But the Billionaire Boys Club is at work nationally.

That effort gets a rip on this blog in Massachusetts.

You see, here in Massachusetts, the annual occasion on which politicians and advocates for children spend the day bepraising teachers rather than besmirching them just happens to fall right smack in the middle of cap-raising season. For non-excellence lovers: the “cap” is the artificial limit on excellence and innovation that is prohibiting our children from reaching their fullest 21st century workplace skills and prosperity potential. But who among us has the enormous wealth to fund the grassroots movement well-oiled lobbying machine necessary to at last remove the constraints on excellence (and also sneak in a sneaky provision that will force public school districts to hand over “underutilized” property to privately operated charter operators at “rent controlled prices”)? Meet the generous hosts of today’s event, the Waltons: John-Boy, Zeb, Grandma and Olivia Alice, Jim, Rob and Christy. On this special day, we lift our caps to them!

It turns out that Walmart money is paying for virtually every aspect of the campaign to eliminate the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts. Millions in Walmart dough is being steered to the groups that advocate for charter school expansion, finance the construction of new charters, conduct the polls showing growing public support for more charters and place strategic op-eds calling for more charters. Some $2 million of that money, by the way, goes to individual academies of excellence and innovation, like MATCH and Excel, whose students are transformed into junior lobbyists come cap raising season. Breaking news: a new poll finds that support for excellence rises as voters learn more about its excellence.

All the lobby groups and tactics outlined in Massachusetts are fully deployed by Walton money here, including a Walton-financed arm at their wholly owned university in Fayetteville (nominally known as the University of Arkansas) designed to turn out "research" to validate their view of education.

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How best to improve schools

Max Brantley — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 11:46:25 -0600

How best to improve schools? The Billionaire Boys Club way, by tearing down real public schools and creating dozens or even hundreds of individual school districts in the form of charter schools, virtual schools and private schools powered by public vouchers? Or the way proposed by the Arkansas Opportunity to Learn Campaign, with key ideas shown in the flyer below. See the whole mailing here.

RELATED SCHOOL REFORM NOTES:

* OUR WAY OR THE HIGHWAY: A story in Tennessee outlines how charter school backers are trying to gut the regulatory law there, as the Waltons and other billionaires are attempting to do in Arkansas. It's about control above all, with quality a secondary issue. From an Education Law Center memo:

The Republican super-majority in the Tennessee legislature introduced legislation to strip away the the power of the school boards in Memphis (Shelby County) and Nashville to authorize charter schools. The power would be moved to a state authority.

This move is retaliation against the Metro Nashville school board, which rejected an application from the Great Hearts charter school academy of Arizona. The school board rejected Great Hearts four times! The problem was that Great Hearts wanted to open in a mostly white, affluent neighborhood and had inadequate plans for student diversity.

In an exposé in the Arizona Republic a few months ago, Great Hearts was singled out for dubious financial self-dealing. ...

Nashville’s insistence on turning down this particular application infuriated State Commissioner Kevin Huffman (whose prior experience is limited solely to TFA). Huffman withheld $3.4 million that the state owed to Nashville. The governor and legislators were angry too that Nashville acted to exercise local control. They are now talking about vouchers.

... Question: why are the Republicans in Tennessee so determined to destroy public education in their state? Has anyone in the state read the research on charters and vouchers? Or are they taking marching orders from ALEC?

Those last questions may be posed in Arkansas, too.

* CHEATING: More from Tennessee to illustrate how power and structure are more important to the billionaires and Republicans than results:

A for-profit school that was hyped by Republican lawmakers as a solution to Tennessee’s education problems recently admitted deleting bad grades to “more accurately recognize students’ current progress.”

...A December email obtained by WTVF showed that Tennessee Virtual Academy’s vice principal instructed middle school teachers to delete “failing grades” from October and September.

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Walton money samples Northwest Arkansas opinion; finds people happy

Max Brantley — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 06:22:47 -0600

The Walton billions are now being used by the Walton Family Foundation to gauge the mood in Northwest Arkansas.

The foundation has announced new regular surveying of Washington and Benton counties, the Walmart home territory, on quality of life.

Survey report here. Summary:

Overall, respondents said they were generally happy and believe they have a high quality of life but would like to see more affordable high-quality pre-K options, cheaper and more frequent flights to more destinations and less traffic.

And a winning football team, if only they'd been asked.

Drilling down in the report produces some interesting, if not necessarily revelatory findings. For example: Better educated, wealthier residents were more likely to have visited the Walton-funded Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Lower income people were better represented in usage of the Walton~~-financed~~ supported Jones Center in Springdale.

Education, a pet foundation issue, was covered, of course. Most residents are happy with their schools. About half say they favor "school choice." Choice is, naturally, undefined. It's a positive word and can mean just about whatever the hearer wants it to mean. I'm for choice, if by choice you mean being supportive of quality private schools for those who choose them. I'm not for public tax money going to those private schools, however. A mere 50 percent rating for "choice," in one sense, doesn't strike me as that high.

Survey says 60 percent of respondents believed ethnic diversity made NWA a better place to live. I'd like to see the pollsters in the future ask respondents if the area's overwhelmingly white population is a positive or a negative factor in their evaluation of the region. Just curious.

Even before the guns in church, secret gun permits, fetal gun protection and guns in campus bills, 98 percent of the people in Washington/Benton said they felt safe in their homes.

Also: 78 percent said they favored Rep. Justin Harris' bill to allow fetuses to carry semi-automatic rifles in church.*

* Satire.

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UPDATE: The charter school bandwagon arrives

Max Brantley — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 09:52:07 -0600

Just in time for the charter school rally to be led this morning by Walmart billionaire Jim Walton and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette publisher Walter Hussman, among others, comes a timely news article from, where else, the Democrat-Gazette, on Arkansas's fall in ranking by a charter school advocacy group.

The group emphasizes that Arkansas has fallen to 25th in its ranking of beneficial climate for these quasi-private schools run with public tax dollars. But that's mostly because other states, under the sway of similar fatcat lobbying efforts, have gotten even charter friendlier.

Not to worry, the anti-public school group has a recipe for improving Arkansas's charter school stature that — another coincidence! — happens to be a mirror image of the Walton plan for making another big leap forward in this legislative session toward the privatization of American education. Some of the legislation has already been introduced. More to come.

The group noted that Arkansas could improve its ranking by "creating additional authorizing options, increasing operational autonomy, ensuring equitable operational funding and equitable access to capital funding and facilities, and enacting statutory guidelines for relationships between public charter schools and educational service providers."

More charter schools. Less state oversight. State tax dollars to build buildings, even if they duplicate existing buildings in many Arkansas communities. "Guidelines for educational service providers?" I'm guessing that isn't to facilitate contractual relationships with school teachers.

UPDATE: Twitter photos from the school rally show about 150 people, counting press and assorted bystanders, at the Capitol rotunda this morning. This, after robocalls, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette advertising, incessant Twitter and Facebook messaging, mail appeals and more. The Walton billions haven't fully fertilized the grassroots just yet, apparently.

UPDATE II: David Koon reports on the morning rally. Bush invoked the 1957 school crisis at Central High.

I wish the goal was achieved when those children attended their first class. unfortunately it was not. Inequality just became easily hidden and therefore overlooked, hidden in low-income neighborhoods .... We allowed this to happen because of the soft bigotry of low expectations as my brother talked about.

He said access to quality education was the "civil rights issue of our time." He talked glowingly of the KIPP charter schools in the Delta. "Schools like KIPP show what is possible and they provide depressing evidence of how millions of children have been left behind over the years because they weren't afforded the same opportunities."

He said he hopes people of Arkansas would send a message to "the masters of delay and deferral." Choose, he said. "You have a choice. You can either help the politically powerful groups or you can help the next generation of Americans." Waltons and Bushes are not the politically powerful to whom he referred, of course. Presumably he referred to teacher groups.

UPDATE III: I'm hearing that a centerpiece of the Billionaire Boys Club agenda — to strip the state Board of Education of regulatory authority over charter schools — is running into stout opposition in the House. Despite all the money and all the tub-thumping and all the campaign spending, it turns out others with interest in schools, particularly people in the ground in small school districts, know how to reach the ears of legislators, too. They'll be talking at a news conference Wednesday afternoon by the Arkansas Opportunity to Learn Campaign.

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Charter school rally participant not ready to back law change

Max Brantley — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 10:03:00 -0600

I'd mentioned previously the Billionaire Boys Club and their charter school pep rally at the Capitol next week. Jeb Bush will join such private school/charter school supporters as Jim Walton, Walter Hussman and Bill Dillard at a rally meant to promote the billionaires' school package. (Interesting that Claiborne (Murphy Oil) Deming isn't on the roster, though he'd been listed previously. He shouldn't be. His great effort to help El Dorado public schools is imperiled by the unfettered public school transfer law the Walton billions are backing.

A key speaker will be one of the subsidized faculty members the Waltons have installed at the so-called school of education "reform" at Walton University in Fayetteville. Jeb Bush will lend this support for doing in Arkansas what's been done in Florida (scandal after scandal in charter schools and scant education progress, to name two).

But enough of my usual.

I noticed that Jim Cooper of Melbourne, chairman of the state Board of Education, is on the panel. The billionaires want to jerk control of charter school approval and regulation from the hands of the state board and put it in the hands of a board controlled by appointees of the Republican (read bilionaires') controlled Arkansas Legislature.

Dioes his presence mean Cooper supports the legislation? I've said before that he and other current members of that board, including numerous charter school advocates, have done a fair and tough job in recent years in approving some charter schools and rejecting others. The rejections seem to stick in the billionaires' craw, however.

I talked to Cooper this morning.

He said he has some conflicts on Tuesday and he said he also had concerns about appearing on the panel if it were interpreted as a political statement. He said he'd agreed only to appear as an "objective" participant to talk about the board's work in the past and future. He said he wasn't prepared to speak for or against any of the billionaires' school package — easier approval of charter schools, state construction funding for charter schools, virtually unlimited transfers between school districts and perhaps easing of teacher licensure rules, among others.

Does Cooper think the Board is doing a good job now in regulation of charter schools?

"I think they are doing a good job. Obviously, we may have made mistakes through the years. There may have been some that got through that shouldn't have, but many were turned down and rightfully so."

He added that it had been time-consuming and hard work for the board. But, "I feel pretty comfortable with the way I've voted through the years."

He said he didn't want to compromise his objectivity as board chairman by participation next week. "I may have to think hard about that the next few days."

UPDATE: I also asked Rep. James McLean, a Democrat, if his participation constituted an endorsement of the billionaires' agenda:

No sir. I am interested in listening to everybody and finding out as much as I can about all viewpoints

NEWS RELEASE

A+ Arkansas announced today it will host an Education Rally and Summit in conjunction with National School Choice Week, on Tuesday, January 29, 2013, in Little Rock. The Rally will begin at 9:15 a.m. at the Arkansas State Capitol Rotunda and will feature keynote speaker Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida from 1999-2007 and chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, as well as Mr. Jim Walton, Chairman and CEO of Arvest Bank Group Inc.

Immediately following the Rally at 11:30 a.m., A+ Arkansas will host an Education Summit at the DoubleTree Hotel in downtown Little Rock. This event includes a free lunch for those who RSVP at info@aplusarkansas.org and panel discussions by teachers, administrators, business leaders, educational experts and policymakers.

Dr. Patrick J. Wolf is professor and 21st Century Endowed Chair in School Choice in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions. Wolf will join parents, educators, business leaders and policymakers to discuss the education crisis facing Arkansas. Attendees will also have the opportunity to play an active role in the discussion during Q&A sessions throughout the summit.

"The research record is strong: parental school choice improves outcomes for students, parents, and the broader community,” Wolf stated.

Previously, Wolf taught at Georgetown and Columbia University. As principal investigator of the School Choice Demonstration Project, he is leading the impact evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program through a contract with the U.S. Department of Education (subcontract with Westat) and is overseeing a national research team conducting an independent longitudinal multi-method evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program.

Other Speakers include:

Walter Hussman- Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of WEHCO Media, Inc. 
Bill Dillard- CEO Dillards
John Bacon- Chief Executive Officer, eStem Public Charter Schools
Michele Linch- Executive Director Arkansas State Teachers Association
Jim Cooper- Chairman of the State Board of Education
Leslie Hiner- Vice President of Programs & State Relations at Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice 
Arkansas State Representative Mark Biviano (R)
Arkansas State Representative James McLean (D)
Arkansas State Senator Johnny Key (R)
Georgia State Representative Alisha Morgan (D)
T. Willard Fair- Chief Executive Officer of the Urban League of Greater Miami, Inc.
Angela F. Shirey- Teach For America Director of Development
Virginia Walden Ford- Executive Director of Arkansas Parent Network
Luke Gordy — Executive Director of the Arkansans for Education Reform Foundation

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Morning report: Chicken, pot pie and bleep variety

Max Brantley — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 06:52:10 -0600

Some morning moments:

* WHY DIDN'T SKIP RUTHERFORD THINK OF THIS? An item in D magazine reports that the director of the George W. Bush Presidential Library being built in Dallas is using free chicken pot pie ($4.99 typically) from the Highland Park Cafeteria to lure people to a program on the coming facility. W loves the pot pie apparently. Franke's and free eggplant casserole anyone? I'd go to a goat roping for a free bucket of it.

* CHICKEN BLEEP: Leslie Newell Peacock earlier reported the continued theater of the tech park site selection process. Charles Dilks, the consultant picked by Little Rock real estate developer Dickson Flake — and Flake, and Tech Authority Chair Mary Good and her reliable echo chamber, Death Star Bob Johnson — couldn't be clearer. They believe knocking down acres of a lower-income residential neighborhood lying between UAMS and UALR is the obvious choice for this taxpayer-financed, speculative, chamber of commerce pipe dream. Were all the protestations of city board members that neighborhoods will be preserved merely election season posturing, certain to give way to regretful harrumphing when the board reluctantly accepts the guidance of expert Dilks and decides to mow down dozens of homes in the name of microtuning an office building without, yet, a dime of private investment or potential private occupant with a good idea? City Director Ken Richardson wants some assurances in the form of an ordinance that tax money won't be used to take people's homes. The rest of the City Board's refusal to give homeowners that protection fairly shouts at the sincerity of the likes of Joan Adcock and Co. I still think the fix is in.

* CHICKEN DANCE: Oh, OK, that's a stretch of a headline. The Central High School marching band is more likely to play "On You Tigers" than the chicken dance in the Obama Presidential Inaugural Parade, but it is going to play music. It is still short of the $100,000 it needs to make the trip. Take a donation between 12 and 4 p.m. today to the Central High Visitors Center at Daisy Bates and Park. Or go here for other spots to make contributions as well as a link for on-line contributions.

* SIMPLY CHICKEN: There's a new group calling itself A Plus Arkansas, a name used to great effect by a wonderful nonprofit that promotes the arts in school but expropriated greedily (OK, chickenbleep applies again here) by the Billionaire Boys Club-financed charter school juggernaut in Arkansas.

I note this morning that the billionaires have a dog-and-pony show coming up at the Capitol Jan. 29. Ringmaster Luke Gordy, who knocks down six figures in Walton cash lobbying for them, will present a "forum" on "education reform." Speaking participants:

Former Fla. Gov. (and political dynasty heir) Jeb Bush, Walmart heir Jim Walton, media empire heir Walter Hussman, department store heir Bill Dillard III and oil fortune heir Claiborne (Murphy Oil) Deming. I don't think you'll be finding much diversity of viewpoint in this little summit. What? Are they afraid of somebody who might challenge some of their talking points? They could afford Dianne Ravitch. Why not bring her in for a little counterpoint, Luke?

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Waltons expand political push on school measures

Max Brantley — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:38:08 -0600

Wow, when the Walton family — which has put more than $1 billion into "education reform" through its foundation and spent untold millions more in separate political activties — indicates it's going to increase its political effort it's time for political opponents to build a bomb shelter.

Letter from Buddy Philpott, direct of the Walton Family Foundation says:

The Walton Family Foundation is driven by the urgent need to dramatically raise student achievement, particularly in low-income neighborhoods across our nation. Our board and staff are proud of how we’ve helped cultivate today’s education reform movement by investing more than $1 billion in initiatives that expand parental choice and equal opportunity in education.

As our board reflects on the movement’s recent gains and momentum, they see many new and compelling opportunities to help accelerate the pace of reform. In order to make the most of those opportunities, the board has decided to further expand its leadership role in education reform. Here’s what is taking place:

* Several Walton family members are increasing their individual engagement in both philanthropic and political endeavors related to improving K-12 education. All political activity will be conducted separate and outside of the foundation operations.

* As a result, the family will be expanding its staff capacity to guide and manage its increasing role in education reform.

As part of the process to strengthen the family’s leadership role, Jim Blew, who has advised on the foundation’s K-12 education reform team since 2005, will focus on working directly with individual Walton family members to implement some specific philanthropic projects. Separately, he will execute a political strategy to maximize the current momentum for reform.

* As Jim takes on this important new role, the foundation is initiating a nationwide search for a Director of K-12 Education Reform. The search is being led by Russell Reynolds Associates, and all inquiries regarding the position may be directed to Walton@RussellReynolds.com. We anticipate that several outstanding candidates will show strong interest in the director’s position. We are also looking for talented individuals to fill several other positions on our education reform team. For more information on these opportunities, please visit www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/about/job-openings.

Applicants must believe that unions are bad; vouchers are good; charter schools are good and mustn't be subject to the same scrutiny as conventional public schools; standardized test scores are to be taken as gospel; democratically elected school boards are bad for education; state education boards that take charter school applications seriously must be sidestepped and new agencies created that don't take the review so seriously; public universities must teach this dogma and reject countervailing views, and, finally, might makes right.

For a relative pittance, the Walton family has rented sufficient Arkansas legislators to control committees that generally determine the fate of school legislation in Arkansas. It has funded multiple private organizations to carry this message around the state, such as Arkansans for Education Reform. It has expropriated the name, A Plus Arkansas, of a devoted nonprofit organization working to teach arts in the school, for its own purposes and refused to relinquish it. That's the Walton way. Money doesn't just talk, it shouts. And now they're going to spend more on politics? Whew. I guess the new legislature could just outsource the whole damn public school system to Bentonville and be done with it.

HOWEVER: John Brummett Twitters that Gov. Mike Beebe fielded a charter school question. With the Walton forces spoiling to end state regulation of charters and explode the numbers he reportedly says if something isn't broke, why fix it? Hmmmm.

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The TGIF open line: Entergy meets the press

Max Brantley — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:14:57 -0600

May tomorrow bring universal electrical service, safe streets, garbage trucks to haul the mountains of accumulated wrapping paper, a federal budget that doesn't favor a handful of billionaires and peace in our time. Meanwhile:

* ENTERGY DOES SOME SPLAININ: As the unlit and unheated get testy, Entergy continues to meet with the press to explain the breadth of the problem and the resources now being thrown at restoring power. Talk Business has a report on latest Entergy presser. A good stream of Tweets on the event from Channel 7's Angela Rachels also. A few thoughts:

1) This is a tough job that nobody could have fully expected. But it's poor form for Entergy to blame an imprecise weather forecast (NE Ark. was expected to be worse than LR) for not having people in the right place. Also disingenuous. They weren't going to bring people from Louisiana into Little Rock on the chance something might happen here. And expecting utter precision in a weather forecast is asking a lot.

2) Don't cry for Entergy's expenses. Some of the cost of repairs is already built into the rate base, with a profit margin. If the reserve fund is spent, they'll be before the PSC for permission to recoup their costs. That's the beauty of being a regulated monopoly utility. Your costs will be covered by ratepayers, no matter what.

3) It's hard and dangerous work out there and we all appreciate those who labor in the cold to get service restored. But it is also part of the expectations and cost of doing business. It is not charity or something Entergy provides out of the goodness of their corporate "heart." We pay for it and it's reasonable to expect efficient response and reliable information when mishaps occur.

4 Questions are arising from grumpy customers about the wisdom of burying more power lines. About the sufficiency of right of way maintenance. About the sufficiency of regular repair crew staffing, versus counting on imports from other states with the lag time on assembling and transportation. No hurry on these discussions, but they are worth remembering. For now, let there be light.

5) On a personal note: Julie Munsell, any reason why after repeat requests the Times still can't seem to get on the list for notices of Entergy news conferences and news releases?

* FOX FUNNY BUSINESS: Huffington Post compiles a video of nine of Fox News' wildest utterances of 2012. Only nine?

* OLD SCHOOL CRIME NEWS: A bust up Huntsville way of a guy operating a moonshine still.

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The new Arkansas legislature: Money is bipartisan

Max Brantley — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 06:31:20 -0600

OK, things ARE different in Arkansas in the party politics realm.

Stephens Media profiles the new Republican leaders of the Arkansas legislature - Sen. Michael Lamoureux and Rep. Davy Carter - and features their professed willingness to work "across the aisle" with Democrats.

They are dealmakers, it's true. But any notion that they signal a moderate legislature should be put to bed before the new General Assembly convenes in January. The Democratic majority was pretty conservative to begin with, but it will seem moderate by comparison. Hard to imagine Arkansas could get more conservative than it already is on guns, abortion and discrimination against gay people, but just wait. And Republicans are coming with Voter ID laws

All of these things aren't necessarily partisan issues. The big money has already bought bipartisan support on some key issues - for example, charter schools and other so-called "education reform." The Walton money will, for example, probably take control of charter school oversight from the state Board of Education (it's doing too good a job), likely through a new, far more political appointed group attuned to Billionaire Boys Club wishes. Pending, too, is a so-called parental trigger law to allow a vote of parents to essentially take over a school they believe to be failing. Panacea? Not hardly. From The New Republic:

Plenty of evidence questions the wisdom of replacing public schools with charter schools. One study, from Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, found that 83 percent of charter schools fared worse or no better than their public school counterparts in producing academic gains. Trigger efforts have also failed to work so far. Only two California schools have been subject to trigger petitions; one effort failed, another remains tangled in the courts. The laws have also been criticized for offering ill-defined options to parents: just because parents want their children to attend a charter over a public school, that doesn’t mean that charter schools will welcome the opportunity to teach their children, who may be several grades behind their peers.

Others are troubled by the backers of parent trigger laws. After Ben Austin, a California charter school overseer, dreamed up the original proposal, the idea was seized upon and propagated by the American Legislative Exchange Council—better known as ALEC, the model legislation giant behind the controversial “stand your ground” laws—and the Heartland Institute—notorious, of late, for comparing believers in climate change to the Unabomber. Both organizations have disseminated model parent trigger laws. (As pointed out by Center for Media and Democracy member Mary Bottari, the Heartland Institute’s bill notably allows parents to trigger a school’s transformation whether or not it’s failing.)
This money takeover of state legislatures by right-wingers is happening all over.

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Required reading on education reform

Max Brantley — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 06:23:32 -0600

The New Yorker has a major article out on Diane Ravitch, who's moved from school "reformer" to the soul of the opposition against the billionaires' movement to privatize public education.

Unfortunately, only an abstract is available. I could wish the newly rented Arkansas legislature would get a copy and read it before rubberstamping the Walton/Stephens/Murphy/Hussman lobby's legislative agenda, but no point cluttering up their work with facts on the other side. In short:

Ravitch argues that the reform movement is driven by an exaggerated negative critique of the schools, and that it is mistakenly imposing a free-market ethos of competition on an institution that, if it is to function well, requires coöperation, sharing, and mentoring.

The "reform" movement also - by division of community resources, cream-skimming, playing on prejudice and other means - promotes segregation by class and race, depresses teacher pay, puts publicly financed schools beyond the accountability afforded by democratic oversight and creates a marked divide between winners and losers. Oh, and most of the research shows that, despite some individual examples to the contrary, charter schools generally don't produce better results than conventional public schools among similar populations. I know. Don't confuse Republican legislators with facts.

Maybe the University of Walton in Fayetteville could bring her in for a debate with its Walton-financed "reform" faculty, which, coincidentally, gins out propaganda for the Walton "reform" movement.

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Benton County committee celebrates alcohol sale approval

Max Brantley — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:50:59 -0600

The Walton-heir-financed committee that successfully pushed a petition drive for an election to legalize retail alcohol sales in Benton County is celebrating the victory with a news release today. It was a runaway victory, not particularly surprising given the burgeoning "private club" industry in Benton County and the backing of the Walton family. (Two Walton grandsons gave almost $300,000 each to the $680,000 campaign, according to the most recent report.)

Liquor by the drink, Sunday sales and conventional restaurant booze permits are in the offing via various regulatory channels. The most interesting question is who'll be first in line for the first package store permits.

The Macadoodles outfit, which successfully broke the Washington County liquor cartel and which is well-known after years as the first-stop choice for many an Arkie just over the Missouri line, would be a contender, I'd guess. Having visited their huge new store on I-540 in Springdale, I'm ready to say you can do a LOT worse in Arkansas, on both price and selection.

Under existing Arkansas law, Walmart can't open a liquor store, even separate from an existing Walmart or Sam's Club. The groundbreaking case that gave them an outlet in Fayetteville limited the company to one store. But .... maybe the Walton charter school lobbyists, with ducks already in a row on that fight in the rent-to-own Republican legislature, could find a little spare time to loosen up archaic liquor laws, too. Then maybe we could get a Costco in Arkansas.

NEWS RELEASE

After a successful petition drive that began in February, Benton County residents voted to legalize alcohol sales in the County in a historic vote on Nov. 6.

The ballot initiative to change Benton County from a "dry" county to a "wet" county passed by a 2-to-1 margin with 50,456 residents (65.6 percent of the voting population) voting in favor of the initiative. The last time voters had the opportunity to have their say on alcohol sales in Benton County was 1944 when the population of the County was approximately 38,000. Much has changed since then with today’s population at 220,000 and growing, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.

"We are very pleased with Tuesday’s outcome," said Marshall Ney, an attorney with the Mitchell Williams Law Firm in Rogers and spokesman for Keep Dollars in Benton County, the entity formed to support the initiative. "First and foremost, the most exciting thing is that the voters of Benton County had an opportunity to vote on this issue something that hasn’t been done in more than 65 years. We had a dedicated committee and many volunteers who helped us get this passed. We owe them a huge thanks for all that they have done over the past year.

"We respect that there are differing points of view on this issue, but as we’ve said all along, Benton County is already the wettest dry county in the state. Up until now Benton County has received none of the tax and economic benefits of officially being wet. Our county and cities certainly need the tax revenue and potential new jobs and businesses this brings. It’s a major economic win for Benton County."

Brothers Steuart and Tom Walton, along with other individuals and local businesses, were behind the cause from the beginning, providing initial funding for the petition drive phase and the get-out-the-vote effort.

"My brother Tom and I are very pleased with the election result on the wet-dry initiative, and the fact that Benton County voters had an opportunity to be heard on this issue," said Steuart Walton. "We do feel strongly that this outcome represents a significant economic opportunity for Benton County and our individual cities, so we are likewise pleased that all the tax revenues and potential new jobs involved here will now be staying in the County."

Keep Dollars in Benton County will dissolve in the coming weeks now that its primary objectives are accomplished, Ney said. The Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission and elected officials in Benton County and its cities will oversee the next steps for each community. The county and cities can begin considering other potential actions including approving liquor-by-the-drink sales and on-premise consumption permits, and Sunday sales of alcohol. These all would require further action by the county and individual cities with very specific laws and regulations involved in the process.

Although the vote tally is in favor of legalizing alcohol sales in Benton County, it doesn’t become official until the County certifies the votes by Nov. 16.

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Charter school money talks in Washington, Arkansas

Max Brantley — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 06:04:29 -0600

Diane Ravitch comments on the success, on their fourth try, by wealthy charter school backers to pass a law opening the way to more charter schools in Washington state.

She links to a report on who put up the $10 million to pass the law. It includes $1.7 million from Alice Walton, heiress to the Walmart fortune built by her father.

It reminds me again about how cheap it is to buy Arkansas. Maybe $2 million bought an Arkansas Republican majority in this year's election.

Much, much less than that was spent by Waltons and other billionaire backers and their agents to buy majorities on critical Arkansas education committees in 2010.

The charterizing of public schools in Arkansas with complete absence of proof of the superiority of the concept and plenty of proof of the perils of lack of accountability for the functional equivalent of publicly funded private schools will come in a torrent in 2013. That's a given.

The only unanswered question is whether a few Republicans, though wholly beholden to the Billionaire Boys Club, will be able with a straight face to say they believe in accountability while stripping accountability from the charter school process by taking regulatory power from the state Board of Education.

The state Board has approved charter schools left and right, but not every single charter school. And it has begun demanding performance on promises from existing charter schools. The billionaires' lackeys and they are everywhere, from the the Walton-controlled University of Arkansas to the Walton-controlled University of Central Arkansas to the private lobbying group they established in Little Rock don't like such rigorous oversight one bit. For example: The Board denied a LISA Academy expansion in Little Rock when a Board member noted that the school after drawing a whiter and more economically privileged student body than the surrounding public school district wasn't demonstrating academic performance any better than conventional public schools.

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Outcome-based education legislation, Republican style

Max Brantley — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 10:30:07 -0600

We go to press this week before the election so I was working on a column about how some things will remain the same in Arkansas regardless of how the election turns out. Might as well share the gist of it now.

For example: Education. The Billionaire Boys Club bought significant legislative control in 2010 and the result was a loosening of the charter school law in 2011, with a floating cap that automatically increases each time a cap is hit. But that still wasn't enough for the Walton-Stephens-Murphy-Hussman combine that seeks to wreck universal public education with a crazy quilt of "choice" programs that will create some winners and a lot of losers, particularly in urban areas like Little Rock.

The Walton money is in play again this election season, primarily in behalf of a Republican majority because Republican Party dogma has always supported private school vouchers, tax money for home schoolers and more charter schools where favored economic classes can flee people not like them. But there are Democrats on board this train already, too. And the completion of the Walton agenda is in the offing.

A plan is underway to loosen still further charter school restrictions. In a Walton-perfected world, there'd be no cap on charter school establishment. Fly-by-night profiteers with no track record and scant financial backing would be allowed to freely enter the education field here with tax money. Someday, in the great by and by, if they fail, they'd be shut down. The children schooled in these failed institutions would just be collateral damage.

Sen. Michael Lamoureux, who'll lead the Senate if Republicans have a majority and who'll be part of a charter school majority vote no matter which party is in power, was quoted in the Democrat-Gazette over the weekend as saying charter-school supporters don’t believe that the current process for considering proposed charter schools is “very fair,” but he doesn’t know what “the exact solution would be.”

I asked him what was unfair about the current system. We have perhaps the most diverse, most diligent state Board of Education of my 40 years in Arkansas. Its membership includes black people, white people, a Latina activist, former legislators and a pillar of the Little Rock charter school movement. It has rigorously reviewed both charter school applications and the performance of existing charter schools. It has been generally supportive of charters (and tough on failing conventional public schools), but it has rejected some charter expansions and some new applications, always for cogently expressed reasons. What's not to like? We could wish that the Game and Fish Commission, to name one, had such a healthy representation of viewpoints and dealt so fully, openly and earnestly with competing philosophies on the field it regulates.

Lamoureux's response:

"I guess by unfair I mean, we are not getting the desired result."

Wow. That's an honest answer.

Republicans don't want facts. They don't want fairness. They don't want due diligence. They want "results." Meaning, they want their way. Or the way of the fatcats who bankroll them.

I asked Luke Gordy, the well-paid Walton lobbyist who oversees multiple efforts to enforce the Walton way on Arkansas public schools (including an outfit that expropriates the good name of a non-ideological school organization), for an outline of the new charter school enabling legislation. No dice. The Walton idea of transparency does not include that, apparently, except with friendly legislators.

I pressed Lamoureux on whether he thought the state Board of Education review was somehow flawed or unnecessary. He responded to my specific question that there should be a review on finances, track record and the like.

Yes, those issues should be considered.

I think proponents feel the process is not yielding desired results.

I do not know all the details.

Who needs details? It's enough to know the Waltons are unhappy with results so far.

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Morning roundup — a bridge, school reform, departed friends

Max Brantley — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 06:30:34 -0500

A few odds and ends:

* A BRIDGE TO FITNESS: Skip Rutherford sent a Twitter this morning noting that the pedestrian bridge by the Clinton Library, fashioned from an abandoned railroad bridge, opened a year ago. I can testify to his mention of its popularity. I've taken to including a bridge crossing on occasional 30-minute walks from my office at Markham and Scott during the lunch hour. Lots of company on the bridge. Great views upriver and down. I spot a different familiar name each time in the list of donors inscribed on the concrete path. The walk through the library park itself, and the new trail around the wetlands area, isn't bad either. Recommended.

* ANOTHER WALTON SCHOOL TENTACLE: I was forwarded an e-mail from Laurie Lee (nee Masterson and the leading figure in a fight against books in Fayetteville school libraries with content she deemed inappropriate). She's now employed in the Billionaire Boys Club effort to take over public education in Arkansas with charter schools, school "choice" (even if it leads to massive resegregation), teacher union vilification and all the rest. She's touting coming public meetings by a group called A+ Arkansas (not to be confused with several other more benign groups that have used a similar name). Her group is funded by the Arkansans for Education Reform Foundation, one of several lobbying/influence/interest groups powered by Walton/Stephens/Murphy/Hussman money and influence to push their political agenda through the Arkansas legislature. It employs former state Board of Education member Luke Gordy as its point lobbyist. .

* UALR MOVES TO DORMS FOR FRESHMEN: I'm still awaiting fuller response from UALR, but multiple sources confirm that the campus is looking hard at, and may have made, a decision to require incoming freshmen of "traditional age" to live in campus housing. Many other state college campuses have similar rules. UALR for years had no dorms at all, because of efforts by others in the UA system to hold back its development. This change, while lifting the campus to something akin to parity with others, doesn't come without risk. Some think it could take away a recruiting advantage for UALR — living at home while attending college. Might the requirement encourage students to choose other commuting options, including Pulaski Tech or UCA? The idea arises from a comprehensive study by a consultant on recruitment

* FAREWELL FRIENDS: A note of personal privilege. The obituaries this morning noted the death of Ivy Bea Lackey, 88. No reason you should know Mrs. Lackey. But over 20 years or so, until her health began failing, she was a good and faithful phone friend. I can attest, as her obituary did, that she was devoted to the Democratic Party, her native Cave City and her grandson. You could have added Bill Clinton's name to that list. He had no more dogged defender during bruising election battles and the Whitewater drama than Ivy Bea Lackey. When the signs renaming Markham Street for the president went up, she had her photo made with me standing in front of one of the new signs. Her love of politics was well-suited to another passion, Geyer Springs Baptist Church, its political intrigues another favorite topic of conversation. She often compared notes with Flo Cato, another frequent caller and famed letter writer. I treasure associations such as these, the felicitous fallout of a career in newspapers.

Farewell, too, to another remarkable and indomitable woman, Dell Leveritt of North Little Rock, who died last week at 92. She was a school teacher with an inquisitive mind that remained acute to the end, even as other parts began giving out. She was the mother of my boss and friend, Alan Leveritt. The independence and persistence with which she lived her life were imprinted on him in starting and sustaining a small publishing company against long odds. You should hope, by the way, for a son so devoted. There will be a memorial service for her at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Park Hill Presbyterian Church.

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Waltons fund another education 'reform' lobby

Max Brantley — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:20:30 -0500

I asked Gary Newton, then a Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce employee, last week about a report from a well-informed source that he was taking off to start another think tank/lobby/special interest group on education to be called Arkansas Learns. He didn't respond to my e-mail.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has reported today that Newton is indeed to be the new president and CEO of Arkansas Learns.

Who's putting up the money to finance this new organization? My first inclination was to say a good place to start would be the Walton family, which has plenty and which is already supporting, among others, organizations at the University of Arkansas, University of Central Arkansas and in the Little Rock lobby community to sell their anti-union, pro-charter, pro-voucher school message, along with funneling huge sums to the election of friendly legislators and other elected officials. Newton has long been a critic of the Little Rock School District and worked unsuccessfully on legislation in 2011 to change the method of election of School Board members so that it would resemble Little Rock government — with at-large seats (far more expensive to contest) holding the balance of power, a structural change that would have concentrated power in the hands of those with the money and upended the current black majority on the board.

I asked Newton about his financial supporters and aims. No response. But he has a Facebook page. Note that it is an "alliance of employers" — as opposed to employees. Note that early friends are the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform, the Arkansas State Teachers Association, an anti-Arkansas Education Association group, and, surprise!, the Walton Family Foundation.

Get it?

Indeed, his blog reports that initial funding (amount not disclosed) comes from a grant from, surprise again!, the Walton Family Foundation. He says his organization will be "independent and self-sustaining." He doesn't identify the source of continuing funding, but if it includes the Little Rock Chamber, I hope he'll send a thank-you note to city taxpayers who subsidize it. From his blog:

Newton continued, “The Governor has often said, that ‘education and economic development are inseparable.’ By allying with chambers, economic development organizations, and employers across the state, Arkansas Learns intends to put that statement into action.”

Ally with teachers? Students? What do they know?

Sounds like a newly minted lobbyist to me.

He's Twittering, too — with an early post aimed at urging election opposition to current LR School Board members. He's following a solid-gold list of charter schoolers and "reformers" on Twitter.

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Benton County moves toward wet/dry election

Max Brantley — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 09:44:36 -0500

The Benton County clerk says backers of the Walton-funded drive to put a retail alcohol sales proposal on the county election ballot in November submitted enough signatures to qualify (City Wire, via Talk Business). ~~But now a certification process is necessary to see if enough of those signatures — about 41,000 — are those of registered voters.~~

CORRECTION: There was some confusion in the report I linked. I double-checked with County Clerk Tena O'Brien. As of today, she said 42,444 had been verified as registered voters eligible to sign to put the measure on the ballot. This was out of 55,460 signatures processed. So, while opponents have a 10-day period to appeal the clerk's certification, it appears to be set for the ballot.

Money talks. The Walton grandsons who've contributed $360,000 so far to this drive did a better job of hiring a professional canvasser than some others with statewide petitions did. The success rate was 76 percent on petitions checked through this morning.

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Signatures filed on Walton-financed drive for Benton County alcohol sales

Max Brantley — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 13:33:16 -0500

The Sam Walton grandsons-backed drive to allow retail alcohol sales in Benton County is making progress.

The ad hoc group, Keep Dollars in Benton County, has announced its paid canvassing campaign has gathered 56,000 signatures on petitions to put the proposal on the ballot. Under the law, they needed 38 percent of registered voters, or 41,171. The county clerk now must certify that sufficient registered voters signed up.

Steuart and Tom Walton, sons of Jim Walton, have so far reported spending $330,000 on the effort. E-Z Mart and Kum and Go have also contributed $20,000 each. Casey General Store has kicked in $10,000.

Benton County is one of the dampest dry counties in Arkansas, with dozens of restaurants selling drinks under private club permits. The Walton brothers grew up there and still spend time in Bentonville, but Steuart Walton lives in London and Tom Walton in Austin, Texas. A number of local business people are on the committee working for alcohol sales.

NEWS RELEASE

Members of the Keep Dollars in Benton County group turned in more than 56,000 signatures to the Benton County County Clerk’s office today. The group has worked over the past five months to secure enough signatures from Benton County voters to put up for vote Nov. 6, 2012, whether or not retail alcohol sales should be legal in Benton County. The County Clerk’s office will now go through a process of validating the signatures to determine if 38 percent of registered voters in Benton County have signed a legal petition confirming their desire to bring the matter to a vote.

According to the Benton County County Clerk’s office, 38 percent of registered voters as of June 1, 2012, is 41,171 — the number of valid signatures needed to put the wet/dry issue on the ballot.

Voters in Benton County haven’t had the opportunity to vote on whether or not the county should be "wet" or "dry" since the mid 1940s when voters were last heard on this issue, said group spokesman Marshall Ney, an attorney with the Mitchell Williams Law Firm in Rogers. Since that time, when the population of Benton County was approximately 38,000, much has changed in the county with today’s population at 220,000 and growing, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.

"We have worked hard through the use of a professional firm, National Ballot Access (NBA), and our many volunteers to gather enough signatures to get this issue on the ballot," Ney said. "Based on our own internal review, we are confident that we have the necessary signatures, but, ultimately, it’s up to the County Clerk to determine if we have the necessary signatures to place this on the November ballot."

Over the past five months, Keep Dollars in Benton County petitioners and volunteers have gathered signatures at community events, Drive Up Sign Up special signing events and door-to-door.

"We can’t thank our petitioners and our volunteers enough," Ney said. They have worked tirelessly, especially in these last couple of months, to ensure that we have enough signatures to get this important issue on the ballot. We are hopeful that Benton County residents will finally have the opportunity to have their say on an issue that affects the economic growth of our community."

Keep Dollars in Benton County is committed to moving the county to a "wet" county because of the many economic advantages, Ney said. According to an economic impact study from the University of Arkansas’ Center for Business and Economic Research, converting Benton County from dry to wet would be an approximately $33 million total annual economic impact.

"Based on the study, there is no question that there are real and significant economic benefits that would accrue to Benton County if retail alcohol sales were legal," said Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research. "This potential economic impact would include additional sales and property taxes for the county and its individual cities, the creation of new jobs and businesses, and indirect economic benefits resulting from all this new activity as well."

The full study is available on the Center’s website: http://cber.uark.edu/

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UA to give Alice Walton honorary degree

Lindsey Millar — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:26:32 -0600

The University of Arkansas will give Alice Walton an honorary Doctor of Arts and Humane Letters during spring commencement, the school announced today.

Said Chancellor G. David Gearhart in statement:

“There are very few individuals who have the ability to make truly transformational changes in people’s lives or in the way institutions operate; far fewer individuals act on that ability. Alice Walton is a very special individual. We want to honor what she has done already for Northwest Arkansas, the state of Arkansas, and of course, this university.”

Walton received her bachelors degree from Trinity University in San Antonio.

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Waltons could buy a third of U.S. population

Max Brantley — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:24:13 -0600

Salon reports on an economist's analysis of the wealth of the Walton family. It puts it terms you can understand. "Insane wealth," is how Salon put it.

In short, six Waltons, with almost $70 billion in assets according to a 2007 Forbes analysis, have assets equal to ALL the assets of the bottom 30 percent of the U.S. population, or about 100 million people.

Keep shopping Walmart and maybe the big six can do even better.

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Chamber cheerleading the charter movement

Max Brantley — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:04:44 -0500

Propaganda party touted here by the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, which has served for some time as an enabler of messaging about the alleged waste of money that is the Little Rock School District.

It's billed as a "town hall meeting" on school choice — 6 p.m. Oct. 25 at Philander Smith College. They'll screen the charter school propaganda film — "Waiting for Superman" — and have a panel discussion noticeably lacking in opposing points of view on the subject. Participants include: The Walton-financed eStem charter school head; a conservative Heritage Foundation employee who supports vouchers and charters; a member of the Walton-financed faculty at the School for Education Reform in Fayetteville; a leader of one of the Walton-backed KIPP charter schools.

Diane Ravitch, who speaks inconvenient truths to the Billionaire Boys Club about the general lack of results of choice programs? No way. Little Rock School District attorney Chris Heller, who's written a masterful brief (here and also here) on the way the state of Arkansas has failed to uphold its end of the desegregation agreement by poor review of open charter school applications in Pulaski County? Somebody from the local school districts, say even an honest broker like Little Rock Board President Melanie Fox, who could present some balance to the throw-down-on-public-schools movement while readily acknowledging shortcomings? Don't hold your breath.

Perhaps the chamber would invest some of its Little Rock tax dollars in printing copies of Ravitch's "The Myth of Charter Schools" for distribution at the session for the missing counterpoint.

Other sponsors include Arkansans for Education Reform, the Walton-financed lobby for charter schools; the Participant Foundation, a Beverly Hills nonprofit pushing distribution of this film to achieve policy aims, and Philander Smith College. Free copies of "Waiting for Superman" will be distributed. Maybe they could print this Washington Post op-ed taking down "Superman" point by point as a study supplement.

To repeat myself: The Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce is free and welcome to oppose universal health care, workers rights, workers compensation, environmental protection and other progressive policies. It is free to tear down the public school system in favor of a balkanized system rife with haves and have nots. It is free to trash a system that my children and tens of thousands of others attended to their benefit. But I still hate that they do it with my tax dollars.

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Walton Foundation gives $1.2 billion to Crystal Bridges

Max Brantley — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:51:26 -0500

The Walton Family Foundation announced today that it had given an additional $403.29 million in 2010 to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville for acquisitions, construction costs and other expenses. This is on top of $800 million announced earlier in 2010 grants for an endowment for the museum, founded by Alice Walton. She's the daughter of Sam Walton, whose Walmart fortune created the foundation.

There's more where that came from. Amounts given in 2010 don't include the ~~$661~~ $411 million given earlier by the Walton Family Foundation and Helen (Mrs. Sam) Walton. A number of other significant gifts have been made, including the recent announcement of $10 million from the Willard and Pat Walker Foundation to pay expenses of school visits to the museum. Walmart gave $20 million for free admission for all over five years. (Not restricted to children as I originally wrote.)

The museum is to open Nov. 11.

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Walton money takes over Wisconsin

Max Brantley — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 06:40:49 -0500

A report from Wisconsin on the state of affairs in that Tea Party Republican-controlled state:

The Republican governor and legislator are cutting spending on public schools by $800 million, but increasing the amount sent to private schools by $17 million.

And, for that, these private schools can thank Alice Walton and her family.

Walton, the multi-billionaire heiress to father Sam Walton's Walmart empire, was the largest individual contributor to successful state legislative candidates in the 2009-10 election cycle that brought Republicans to power in Wisconsin, according to data from MapLight, a nonpartisan organization that tracks the relationship between money and politics.

Walton gave a total of $16,100 to these candidates, according to data. In fact, six of the top 15 individual contributors to last fall's successful state legislative candidates were Walton family members, including Alice's brother and sister-in-law Jim and Lynne Walton, sister-in-law Christy Walton, and niece Carrie Penner and her husband, Greg Penner.

Collectively, they gave at least $103,450 to Wisconsin candidates since mid-2008, state records show.

This is only the tip of the Walton iceberg, however. Walton money drives a lobby group working for vouchers and charter schools in Wisconsin. It also contributes millions to a "vast and interconnected array" of organizations working on the same goals. The Walton Family Foundation has devoted $157 million to pushing "school choice" — which generally means anything but conventional public schools, particularly those represented by teacher unions.

Wisconsin is a key battleground because it has the most advanced voucher programs. But it's only Arkansas written large. You can buy the Arkansas legislature for much less, as the Walton-financed lobby proved in the last session with its successful advocacy of a charter school expansion bill. A paltry few thousand got the job done in the Arkansas House and Senate. The Waltons, of course, purchased the University of Arkansas some years ago for this effort and, in addition to supporting their work in Arkansas, the Walton-financed "school reform" arm is also helping the cause in Wisconsin.

The Walton Family Foundation also gave at least $600,000 last year to the University of Arkansas' School Choice Demonstration Project, which is conducting a multi-year assessment of Milwaukee's school choice program.

In March the Arkansas project released a report of Milwaukee's parental choice program that others have criticized as overly rosy. But the report found there was no significant difference in the performance of select choice students and similar Milwaukee public school students in the 2009-10 school year. That finding was affirmed by a report released in August by Wisconsin's nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau.

I would say, watch out, this could happen to YOU. But it already has. One example: A Walton employee, Naccaman Williams, recently cycled off the state Board of Education to be replaced by a charter school advocate, Joe Black, whose salary is paid by a grant from the Walton Foundation.

ALSO: Just last week, the misleadingly named Arkansas Public School Resource Center and the Arkansans for Education Reform Foundation (both Walton-financed tools to divert students and resources away from the Little Rock School District) weighed in against the Little Rock District's fight for the state to stop promoting segregation with its poor supervision of the establishment of open enrollment charter schools in Pulaski County. (ASIDE TO LUKE GORDY'S SNEERING REMARK IN NEWS RELEASE: Charters will compete the same way public schools do when they are required to keep all students they receive no matter how poorly they perform or how resistant they and parents are to meeting charter school rules. Get back to me when a charter operation takes over a tough LR school and manages the students it's given, something charter operators all over the country have refused to do — for obvious reasons.)

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Walton money louder than air boats

Max Brantley — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 06:21:51 -0500

Reporting in Texas says Walmart heiress Alice Walton is a force behind legislation awaiting the governor's signature to ban noisy airboats on scenic stretches of the Brazos River. Walton has given $120,000 to the senator who sponsored the bill. She's given almost a quarter of a million to the governor. She's a landowner in the area affected.

“As with all legislation that makes it to his desk, the governor will thoughtfully review all bills in their final form and make a decision,” said Lucy Nashed, Deputy Press Secretary for the governor.

“I’m thinking that he’s done us wrong if he signs that bill,” [airboat user Donald] Shirley said, “He’s sold out the poor people, and the rich lady’s bought us out.”

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Lincoln goes to bat for Waltons

Max Brantley — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 08:41:03 -0500

You'd think working tirelessly for a multi-billion-dollar estate tax exemption for the Walton family would be work enough for Sen. Blanche Lincoln.

But, no. The Wall Street Journal reports that she's trying to write a special exception for the Waltons' Arvest Bank into financial legislation.

Under Ms. Lincoln's proposed change, Arvest would be excused from a provision that could require banks to raise more capital, in Arvest's case about $115 million. Other Senate Democrats had intended only to exempt banks with less than $10 billion in capital from the provision. Ms. Lincoln wants to raise that to $15 billion, a threshold that would exempt Arvest. It is the only bank in Arkansas with between $10 billion and $15 billion of assets, though there are some in other states.

White House officials have said they don't want changes that benefit specific companies, leery of the horse-trading that nearly sank their health-care overhaul. But the administration also can't afford to alienate Ms. Lincoln, head of the Senate Agriculture Committee, whose support on the broader overhaul is vital to its success.

... Ms. Lincoln "believes the threshold should be high enough to ensure no bank in Arkansas is subject to these new rules on existing capital, which would hinder their ability to generate lending for consumers and businesses at a time when access to credit is already difficult to come by," said Ms. Lincoln's spokeswoman, Marni Goldberg, "These banks did not cause the near-collapse of our financial system and should not be punished for Wall Street's actions."

For a family worth in the range of $90 billion, someone might observe that $115 million is small change. This also illustrates how the rich get richer. For combined contributions of only $85,000 or so, the Walton family has gained a friend in Congress worth millions here, and potentially billions down the line.

The comparison in this article to Ben Nelson's dickering for Nebraska is likely to be repeated a few dozen times in the days ahead. The good news for Lincoln is that it's hard to imagine her Republican opponent, John Boozman, decrying a special provision for his homeys, the Waltons.

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