The Humphrey School wants a do-over, this time with a Charter School
The town of Humphrey wants its school back. Humphrey was slated for closure in 2004. That's when "Friends of the Humphrey School" went to work preparing their application for a charter school. According to the article, all charter schools have to have a specialization. The Humphrey school will specialize in foreign languages. They plan to offer four years of Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. Mandarin? you might ask, well none other than the “Dean of the University of Arkansas School of Business” says that Mandarin speakers are the “No. 1 need in business”. The thinking is that these kids can help market Arkansas’ agricultural products to the Chinese in the future. Oh, and the article also notes that the school would receive $5,662 per student in state funding and have five years to meet state educational standards.
Perhaps it will come as no surprise to Arkansas Times Readers that the Walton foundation has donated $20 grand as start-up capital and promised another $400,000 for when they get approval from the state.
So what of Charter Schools? Are they the fecundity of local control that the Right believes they are? Are they an excuse for the Right to dismantle government--taking federalism all the way to the local level--like the Left believes they are? I think they're both. I think they carry with them the double-edged sword of change.
