Teachers at Hackett Elementary School, who say they have benefited greatly from the co-op, told 5NEWS that removing professionals could have a huge negative impact on students' curriculum.
Arkansas, USA — A state education cooperative supports curriculum for teachers and students and serves as a liaison between the state and local school districts. Now they face funding cuts.
State officials recently notified cooperatives in the state that their funding would be cut.
“It's had a huge impact in terms of not being up to date on what's going on,” said Christy McClellan, a teacher at Hackett Elementary School. “The experts know our teachers, they know our school district, and they know what we need.”
McClellan added that limiting co-op staffing makes it difficult for classroom teachers to meet all the standards students need.
Jim Ford, director of the Guy Fenter Educational Services Cooperative, said the state told his company it would only fund three of the eight professionals it has on staff starting in July.
During a March 7 budget hearing before the General Assembly, Arkansas Education Secretary Jacob Oliva said the state must reevaluate the fund if it does not see a return on investment.
“We're telling these co-ops, 'Please don't make any guarantees or expectations that you'll get this funding,'” Oliva said. “The reality is that literacy and numeracy data is not improving, so we will be re-evaluating how these districts report.”
Dr. Curtis Varnell, community science specialist for the Guy Fenter Co-op, said the move to cut funding was surprising given what he heard from the state just a year ago.
“Each of us has a rating, which means we meet all of them,” Burnell said. A year ago, the Secretary of State came and talked about what great work we were doing and what an exceptional group we were. , what changed? ”
Teachers at Hackett Elementary School say Vernell is popular with students and helps teach science-based lessons, experiments and field trips.
After 30 years in the education industry, Burnell said he is retiring so one of his colleagues can continue working.
“I'm old enough to retire,” Burnell said. “My concern is what's best for our kids and what's best for our local schools. I immediately went out and retired to prevent my fellow professionals from retiring. . I'm here today because I think we need to get the word out and I think people need to understand what's going on.”
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