{"id":696,"date":"2007-11-03T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-03T00:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=696"},"modified":"2007-11-03T00:15:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-03T00:15:00","slug":"what-huckabees-illegals-are-doing-to-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=696","title":{"rendered":"What Huckabee’s illegals are doing to schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

Poverty, influx of
\nHispanics <\/span>called
\nhurdles for schools<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n



\n<\/span><\/p>\n

June 28, 2006<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

BY HEATHER WECSLER<\/span><\/p>\n

ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The growing percentage of low-income students and other
\npopulation shifts in Arkansas’ public
\nschools present a challenge <\/span>to education leaders in meeting the state’s
\neducational goals, ac\u00c2\u00adcording to a Southern Regional Education Board report<\/p>\n

The board,
\nwhich concluded its<\/span> annual two-day meeting Tuesday,<\/span> released a report on Arkansas’ prog\u00c2\u00ad-
\n<\/span>ress in meeting such educational goals as availability of early child\u00c2\u00ad<\/span> hood programs and compliance
\nwith the federal No Child Left Be\u00c2\u00ad<\/span>hind Act of 200L Most of the data,<\/span> such as the state’s results on the
\nNa\u00c2\u00ad-
\n<\/span>tional Assessment of Educational<\/span> Progress, have been issued before.<\/span> But the report also tracks demo\u00c2\u00ad
\ngraphic changes in the state.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

According to the report, the
\npercentage of the state’s students
\nwho <\/span><\/strong>are low-income<\/span><\/u>\u00e2\u20ac\u201d defined as
\n<\/span><\/u>students
\nwho qualify for the Na-
\ntional School Lunch Program\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhas
\nclimbed from 39 percent of Arkan\u00c2\u00ad-
\n<\/span>sas students in 1990 to 56 percent
\nin
\n<\/span>2004. In that year, 251,000 students
\n<\/span>were approved for the school lunch
\n<\/span>program  <\/span>in Arkansas<\/span><\/span><\/o:p><\/u><\/p>\n

Ken James, the state
\neducation <\/span>commissioner and a member of the
\nboard who attended the meet\u00c2\u00ad<\/span>ing,
\nsaid the state is already trying <\/span>to
\naddress the number of students <\/span>living in poverty by supporting
\npre-kindergarten programs and funneling
\nstate funds toward dis\u00c2\u00ad<\/span>tricts with high percentages of low-income
\nstudents.<\/p>\n

“We’re doing our best to level
\nthe playing field for those stu\u00c2\u00ad-
\ndents who are coming to us with
\npoverty and other contributing
\nfactors,” James said. “That’s go\u00c2\u00ad
\ning to pay dividends, and I think
\nalready is when you look at our
\nfourth-grade Benchmark scores
\nfor the last few years.”<\/span>        <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

  <\/span>Based
\non the current popula- ‘<\/em>tion of first-graders, the report also predicts that over the next 12 <\/span>years
\nthe proportion of Hispanic graduating high school seniors in the state will grow from 5 percent<\/span><\/o:p><\/strong><\/p>\n



\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

To 27
\npercent<\/span><\/strong> The report projects <\/span>that
\nthe percentage of white and black seniors will
\ndrop. The over\u00c2\u00ad<\/span>all student
\npopulation is expected <\/span>to slightly decrease from about 452,000 students in 2006 to about <\/span>447,000
\nin 2012.<\/p>\n

Such trends will make improv\u00c2\u00ad<\/span>ing student test scores and gradu\u00c2\u00ad<\/span>ation rates tougher for Arkansas, <\/span>the
\nboard said. The board \u00e2\u20ac\u201d
\na nonprofit nonpartisan organiza\u00c2\u00adtion based in Atlanta \u00e2\u20ac\u201d advises state
\neducators and policy-mak\u00c2\u00aders on how to
\nimprove education. Its 16 member states extend from <\/span>Texas in the
\nsouthwest to Dela\u00c2\u00adware in the northeast.<\/span><\/p>\n

Benny Gooden, the superin\u00c2\u00adtendent of
\nthe 13,400-student Fort <\/span>Smith School
\nDistrict, said in 20 <\/span>years he has seen the Hispanic population of his
\nschool system grow from less than one-half
\nof 1 <\/span>percent to about 21 percent.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said those students fre\u00c2\u00adquently
\narrive on campus without <\/span>good language skills.<\/p>\n

“They also typically don’t have good preschool experienc\u00c2\u00ades to
\nprepare them for school,” Gooden said.<\/p>\n

The report says
\nHispanic eighth-<\/span>graders in Arkansas
\nwho scored at <\/span>or above basic level in
\nmath on the <\/span>National Assessment of
\nEducation\u00c2\u00ad<\/span>al Progress trailed white
\nstudents <\/span>by 19 percentage points in
\n2005. <\/span>Black eighth-graders trailed
\ntheir <\/span>white counterparts by 45
\npercent\u00c2\u00adage points in 2005. But the report <\/span>also says in Arkansas, the
\nhigh school graduation rates for black <\/span>students
\nand Hispanic males ex\u00c2\u00adceed the national
\naverage. And the <\/span>state’s overall
\ngraduation rate of 77 <\/span>percent exceeds
\nthe national aver\u00c2\u00adage in 2003 of 74 percent<\/span><\/p>\n

Sea Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, <\/span>who
\nalso attended the Southern Regional
\nEducation Board meet\u00c2\u00ad<\/span>ing, said he
\nbelieves Arkansas has <\/span>taken
\nimportant steps in address\u00c2\u00ad<\/span>ing its
\ndemographic challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Our future is something we can change,” he said. “But it
\nre\u00c2\u00adquires choices for school improve\u00c2\u00ad<\/span>ment to be made today.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poverty, influx of Hispanics called hurdles for schools June 28, 2006 BY HEATHER WECSLER ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE The growing percentage of low-income students and other population shifts in Arkansas’ public schools present a challenge to education leaders in meeting the state’s educational goals, ac\u00c2\u00adcording to a Southern Regional Education Board report The board, which concluded its … Continue reading What Huckabee’s illegals are doing to schools<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,29,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-huckabee-shameful-record","category-illegal-immigration-facts","category-state-government-offenses"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}