Defining Moments: Historic Decisions by Arkansas Governors from McMath through Huckabee

MIKE HUCKABEE: 1996-2007

MIKE HUCKABEE 1996–2007 No longer can the State operate on a “hands off” basis regarding how state money is spent in local school districts and what the effect of that spending is. Nor can the State continue to leave adequacy and equality considerations regarding school expenditures solely to local decision making. —LAKE VIEW DECISION, NOVEMBER 21, 2002 The tsunami created by the Arkansas Supreme Court’s LakeView decision on November ,,threatened a sea change in public education as it had been known, structured, and funded for decades.1 The court’s ruling struck down the formula used to fund public education on grounds that it fostered inequality in educational opportunity and offered students an inadequate product to boot. The court focused on abysmally low national rankings in per capita student expenditures; mediocre test scores; the substandard numbers of high school graduates, college graduates, and those with graduate-school degrees; graduates with an inability to read and write; inadequate teacher pay;  and abnormally high remediation requirements in college for English and math proficiency. The resulting mosaic evidenced an education system that was seriously broken and so dysfunctional that it jeopardized the future of the state. Sixteen days before the LakeView decision was handed down, Mike Huckabee had been reelected to a new four-year term as governor . Because of Amendment  to the Arkansas Constitution, which limited the number of terms for constitutional officers,this would be his last term as governor. However, in less than two months, the General Assembly would meet in regular session to confront the education crisis fostered by the court decision. No one in state government knew quite what to do. Education funding already comprised fully one half of the state’s budget with a total appropriation approaching $ billion. If additional funds were required,where would the money come from?And for what new programs? The session had not yet begun and already the General Assembly’s budgeting process had been derailed by the Arkansas Supreme Court and was in complete disarray. It is not an exaggeration to say that a way of life—small town life in rural Arkansas—was perceived to be under attack by the court’s Lake View ruling. School districts heretofore had always been governed by local school boards.Now the court had decided that public education was not to be controlled locally, but, to ensure equality and adequacy,it had to be not only funded in large part by the state but administered by the state as well.The dreaded fear of forced consolidation and annexation of school districts, which would eliminate small and substandard districts, loomed large,not to mention mandated school mergers in the Mississippi Delta, where some black schools lagged light years behind their white counterparts. So it was that with grave doubts and not a little consternation  MIKE HUCKABEE the legislature met in joint session on January , , to hear what newly reelected Governor Mike Huckabee had to say in his State of the State message.According to his eventual staunch ally on education matters, Senator Jim Argue of Little Rock, it was anybody’s guess what Huckabee would do.2 The smart money was betting that he would demonize the court and force a constitutional crisis by rejecting the court’s ruling. That way, he could lionize local control of school districts, they speculated, and engage in rank demagoguery, George Wallace style.After all, when his predecessor, Jim Guy Tucker, had championed greater consolidation of school districts eight years earlier in an effort to better curriculum and administrative efficiency, Huckabee had piled on Tucker with certain legislative leaders and blasted his program as unworkable and naïve. Why would Huckabee change his position now? Precisely at ten o’clock, the sergeant-at-arms announced the governor’s presence to the House and Senate, and he entered with his ranking department heads, including director of education Ray Simon and selected representatives and senators escorting him. The air was tense, yet Huckabee appeared on his game. He strode down the center aisle toward the raised bench and podium, exuding an air of complete confidence and contentment , shaking hands warmly as he went. This was his fourth address to a joint session on his legislative proposals.He was seasoned now after seven years in office and comfortable in his role. The job and its challenges were no longer new to him.He arrived at the podium and...