Arkansas Blog

Too bad we do not have more (at least a majority) of Board members like Kurras. This "incentive" is a wasteful, unaccountable use of taxpayer money. Nevermind that its source is stimulus money that does little to stimulate the economy. Providing better education for our children (which is supposed to be the goal of the School Board) is the type of stimulus we need. Furthermore if encouraging early retirement will create savings as Supt. Watson claims, all that tells me is that we have too many ineffective employees for our needs. Show'em the door and direct the resultant savings and the proposed "incentive" into providing higher quality education for our kids. As the count of children in the LR district drops (meaning fewer $ for the kids), the failure of a majority of the Board to recognize this trend will result in our public schools becoming the victim of adverse selection. Meaning that the school population demographics will revert back to segregation levels. I fail to understand why a mostly black Board seems to do everything they can to make our schools less and less effective to the growing majority of black students. These public school kids deserve the same quality of schooling available in private and charter schools. Wake up or face the consequences of your stubborn ignorance.

The sad reality of the LRSD is that you have an overabundance of administrators and a 'white flight' from the school system. Unless you recognize this reality and deal with it effectively then the problems will only get worse. I am not optimistic that the current administration or the school board are capable of acknowledging that reality. So sad for a system that used to be the envy of the nation.

When the Conway District School Board offered this same type of incentive a couple of years ago, they justified it with the rationale that every staff member at the top of the pay scale ($60,000 plus per year) who retired could be replaced by two new staff members entering at the bottom of the salary schedule. This type of trade sacrifices experience and places faith in the training (and enthusiasm?) of the beginning teachers. If there are plenty of young, qualified applicants, this could be a positive move for LRSD. A teacher who is working only because insurance costs are keeping them from going home is probably not as effective as they used to be. I wish every teacher who feels that way WOULD take this incentive. The greatest factor in raising student achievement in effective teaching. That one factor outweighs parent involvement, economic disadvantages, racial disparities, etc. I am not saying that all teachers who would take advantage of this incentive are ineffective, and there will be some great teachers who will decide that now is the time to retire; but I see it as a positive thing that some of the worn-out and burned-out (rusted-out?) will go, too.