Category Archives: Education

School shooters: Tell us what they did, not who they are

Education

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Many questions are being tossed around the news media landscape regarding the causes of school shootings. Is it the guns? Violent video games? A lack of morals in society?

The one question members of the news media don’t ask enough is, how much of this is our fault?

As demonstrated in videos released this week that had been made by the Parkland, Florida, school shooter, journalists must be careful lest their breathless, wall-to-wall reporting and dramatization of a tragedy encourage copycat crimes.

A few thoughts …

– Responsible journalists should not give shooters the publicity they seek by publishing their names and likenesses. Otherwise, they’re encouraging people like the Parkland shooter, who in those self-made videos declared, “It’s going to be a big event, and when you see me on the news, you’ll all know who I am. You’re all going to die.” Continue reading School shooters: Tell us what they did, not who they are →

Recess is back at 24 schools

Education

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Twenty-four Arkansas schools are giving their kids more time in recess, and the only bad news is that all of them aren’t.

As reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Monday, those schools are participating in a pilot program this upcoming school year. In addition to physical education classes, their students up to fourth grade will have 60 minutes of recess daily, while fifth- and sixth-graders will have 45 minutes. In contrast, the state minimum is 40 minutes of P.E. per week plus 90 minutes of additional physical activity, including recess.

Among the participating schools are Marguerite Vann Elementary in Conway, Elmer H. Cook Elementary in Fort Smith, and six elementary schools in North Little Rock.

Recess started increasingly being seen as expendable in the 1990s, and that trend continued after the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind law in 2001. As a result of its emphasis on test scores, letting kids play was seen as a luxury that schools and states couldn’t afford. After all, this is America, where the key to success is working harder not smarter, right?

Continue reading Recess is back at 24 schools →

Is Lake View dead?

Education, State government

Lake ViewFor the past quarter century, Arkansas’ education policies – indeed, all state spending – have been framed by the Lake View school funding lawsuit. That may have changed, and we just don’t know it yet.

Let’s start with the background. The Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee case began in 1992, when the small, poor Lake View school district sued the state. It argued that the state was violating the Arkansas Constitution’s requirement to “ever maintain a general, suitable and efficient” education system. The courts agreed that Arkansas had failed to provide “adequate” and “equitable” schools.

During the next 15 years, the case fundamentally changed Arkansas until it finally ended in 2007. Education became accepted as a state responsibility rather than a local one. The state poured money into schools while other states were cutting funding. Schools always were funded first, which meant other priorities shared what was left. Policymakers were reluctant to get too creative with a funding formula they knew was safely constitutional. No one wanted another lawsuit.

Here’s what’s changed since Lake View

But Lake View may not be so influential in the future, for two reasons. Continue reading Is Lake View dead? →

NCAA athletes: How to pay, not whether

Business and economics, Education

The current college basketball scandal may have been caused by the fact that we’re asking the wrong question. Instead of asking “whether” athletes should be compensated, it should be, “how best to.”

On Friday, Yahoo! Sports reported that the FBI is investigating more than 20 programs for rules infractions by sports agent ASM Sports. These range from five-figure gifts for players to, in many cases, just a meal. Caught up in the scandal are some of the country’s top programs, including (shocker!) the University of Kentucky.

Then over last weekend, the news broke that the FBI had wiretapped University of Arizona coach Sean Miller’s phone conversations where he allegedly discussed paying a top freshman $100,000 to sign with the school. Miller strongly maintains his innocence.

The stories are casting a pall over college basketball at a time when the talk is usually about who will make the NCAA Tournament and partake in March Madness. Continue reading NCAA athletes: How to pay, not whether →