Gary Newton, the Walton Foundation-paid charter school lobbyist who’s led the formation of the Quest charter middle school, says on social media that the enrollment process for the new school will begin Monday and continue through March 17. That period will finish before the state Education Department’s charter review panel takes up the school operator’s application for a change of location from the site originally approved by the state Board of Education.
Arkansas Learns
Posted inArkansas Blog
Quest charter school relocation was in works when state Board approved different site
Public hearings and a state agency hearing are scheduled for a proposed change of the recently approved Quest charter middle school from a location on Rahling Road in Chenal Valley to a location several miles east off Financial Center Parkway near I-430. The school operator, Responsive Education Solutions, has provided documents under an Arkansas Times Freedom of Information Act request that shows the alternate site was under study before the state Board of Education approved the school application at the Rahling Road site. Location of the school was an aspect of the board’s debate.
Posted inArkansas Blog
Related parties: state Board of Education member and charter school advocate
When I wrote about last week about the state Board of Education’s 6-2 approval of the new Quest charter middle school to be located in Chenal Valley, I heard from a reader.
Posted inArkansas Blog
How big philanthropy undermines democracy
Your serious reading assignment for the day comes from the quarterly Dissent, “Plutocrats at Work: How Big Philanthropy Undermines Democracy>”
Posted inArkansas Blog
Charter school debate shaping up in West Little Rock
Coincidence. I had lunch with Dr. Dexter Suggs, the new Little Rock school superintendent, this week.
Posted inArkansas Blog
Waltons fund another education ‘reform’ lobby
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.