Oh well. While cancelling school board elections for November 2025 was not the original intent of Act 503 (Rep. Brit McKenzie, Senator Jane English), at least they’re only delayed until March 2026 (four months) and low turnout school board elections are officially over in Arkansas. (fb)

The Arkansas School for Math, Sciences, and the Arts (ASMSA) is, by far, the highest funded “public” school in Arkansas. However, because it’s a part of the University of Arkansas, it doesn’t participate in the state’s accountability system, so we have no way of knowing how its students are performing academically. We applaud ASMSA for offering a variation of its model to more Arkansans, while calling on the publicly funded school to be transparent about the performance and growth of its students. P.S. If a publicly-funded “boarding school” works for our higher performing students, why not consider the model for our most challenged, particularly those with unstable on nonexistent home lives? (fb)