Dear Governor Sanders,

I write this letter as a faithful taxpayer of the Natural State, assuming that being a responsible citizen allows me the privilege of addressing you directly.

When you took office earlier this year, I was heartened that strengthening education in Arkansas was high on your to-do list. However, the rapidity with which LEARNS was crafted and passed through the Legislature gave me pause. All due speed was in order, yet alacrity for political purposes seemed to carry the day. Please allow me to explain myself more fully. I appreciate your willingness to listen.

First, I believe that parental choice, as it is currently defined, is likely to prove counter-productive. What is the subtext here? Is it about who wins the culture wars, or is it about ensuring that every student becomes more competent and is prepared to contribute to American society in her or his own particular way?

Parents have ideas about gender, race, taxation, sports, and just about everything else. Few parents know much about pedagogy or the course content required to achieve excellence, and that is what our program needs to be about--not about philosophical dominance.

We need to remember that being "The land of the free" has far more to do with thought and expression than about items such as gun ownership. LEARNS must be aimed toward right and left; black, white, yellow, red, and brown; rich and poor; students and families of all persuasion.

Second and related is the issue of vouchers, a popular concept among some. If you've traveled to the most rural parts of the state or our few inner-city areas, you will observe looming inequalities. Will the tax dollars allotted to individual families siphon off monies from the public schools, rendering them less able to provide vital services to their pupils? Who will create high-performing private schools in our outermost geographic areas? I hope there is evidence to prove my hypothesis wrong. Equity must matter.

My third point relates to how terrific it is that beginning teachers will soon be paid a living wage. The people who serve in our classrooms are by definition well-educated, idealistic, and determined to make a difference.

Recently, I've interviewed about a dozen faculty candidates for teaching positions at a school where I provide consulting services. Each of them is impressive for intelligence, enthusiasm, love of children, joie de vivre, and professionalism. I would be honored to work with any of them and have my grandchildren taught by them.

Yet I wonder what we will do to ensure that Arkansas can retain teachers such as these beyond the early years if we don't shore up the pay schedule at the top. If we don't improve compensation for middle- and late-career teachers, will many of them flee to other states that are choosing to be more aggressive on this front?

If I'm an aspiring educator in Texas or Missouri, starting my career in Arkansas sounds appealing, but staying the course may not allow me to feed my family or pay my mortgage if I'm not paid adequately. Teaching should not lead to an adult life of genteel poverty. And parsing cost-of-living differences is a straw horse.

My fourth concern is the curriculum and its implementation. Last month, I listened to the education specialist for a new school. The lecture and discussion were scintillating, outlining in very specific and strategic ways how young children will be taught to read. Substantial and continuing professional development is part of the program for all teachers, early career and veteran alike.

At the end of the day, I remarked that if every student in America benefited from this school's approach and its ardent and skillful faculty, very few children would be reading below grade level.

I know that by most objective measures, Arkansas' children are well below national averages in reading and math. How comprehensive and practical is our plan to ensure that young Arkansans are able to be competitive and functional in modern times?

LEARNS purports to put students first, but I wonder if we're only espousing broad philosophical statements that will never find their way into the state's classrooms. We can't reduce the three Rs to Rhetoric, Rhetoric, Rhetoric. Good enough can never be good enough, not when it comes to our children. How will the most effective instructional methods be implemented universally in all our schools? I am eager to see specifics.

I am suspicious that at its core, the parental rights element of LEARNS is really about waging and winning the culture wars, not enough about teaching thinking. Even young people can learn to be critical thinkers. I've observed this during my career. What does a democracy demand more than a literate, thoughtful populace that thinks well and independently, that asks good questions, and that demands accurate, honest answers?

If our children learn to read and think, we may have little need to ban books. Instead, we will have reared a responsible and responsive citizenry that can fend for itself. That is, unless we want our young people simply to follow dogma right or left. Remember that the great abolitionist Frederic Douglass wrote, "Once you learn to read, you will forever be free." So in my bleaker moments, I really do consider parental choice as "I win. You lose."

There have been extended periods in American history when educators were trusted to lead. In today's societal climate, many teachers and administrators are dispirited and discouraged for lack of support and encouragement.

Sure, not all of us are trustworthy. The world's great sacred texts tell us that humanity is frail and flawed, and in need of love, forgiveness, and redemption. Frailty is part of the human condition. Rather than parental choice, what if we seek parent-teacher-community partnerships? I prefer the metaphor of holding hands to that of shaking fists.

It's easy to ascertain that the politics of the American South are red, yet many of the most prosperous areas of this greater region are purple. The inhabitants in these locales don't always agree. Far from it. But they find ways to marry conservative business practices with somewhat progressive principles to achieve success on myriad fronts. Words that spring to mind are compromise, collaboration, and commitment to excellence rather than ideological purity.

Please know that I would enjoy having an opportunity to discuss ways to build on positive aspects of LEARNS while overcoming what I believe to be its weaknesses. Let's think children first, votes last, and concentrate on a mission statement like this: Every child in Arkansas deserves to be known, loved, valued, and educated well. The honest and free exchange of ideas will open minds and cause the state to thrive.

My very best wishes as you seek to serve all Arkansans.

Yours truly,

Arnold Holtberg

Arnie Holtberg is an educator who has worked in public, independent, and international schools and on a Micmac reservation in New Brunswick, Canada. His firm, Holtberg Educational Consulting, assists schools with leadership training, faculty development, and governance issues.

OPINION - Guest Column for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette