2003-04 Education Special Session

On December 8, 2003 the Arkansas General Assembly convened in a special session called by the Governor for the purpose of developing a plan to address the court mandate in the Lake View case before the mandated January 1, 2004 deadline. Legislators in both chambers debated a number of plans concerning the relationship between a school’s size and its quality and cost efficiency (e.g. – consolidation of smaller high schools into larger ones) as well as the best means of monitoring student assessment and school accountability. Finally, they turned their attention to funding formulas and potential sources of new revenue to fund this massive school reform initiative. On February 6, 2004, nine weeks after Governor Huckabee had convened a historic special session of the Arkansas General Assembly to address education reform, the legislative session recessed. This policy brief reviews the key issues debated in the Special Session, including consolidation, student assessment and accountability, teacher salaries, the revised school funding formula, and plans for revenue generation to pay for the education reforms adopted