Now another door has opened, quite unexpectedly yet fittingly: I’ll be helping KIPP Delta Public Schools expand its marvelous college prep campuses throughout the Arkansas Delta, from right here in Little Rock. (Kind of like the club I started to do just that a few months ago. New members are still being accepted.)

My new title is “Chief Development Officer,” which means I’ll be hunting for money to help make up for the 20-30 percent less funding that public charter school students receive from the state under current law. It also means I’ll be doing a bit of legislative advocacy, communications, facilities shopping, and whatever else needs to be done to help KIPP’s students succeed. It’s both thrilling and intimidating; I’ve seen these kids in action, and they’re really sharp. I hope I can keep up.

Stay tuned!

P.S. Now I’m recruiting for two organizations: If you or someone you know would be a great senior policy analyst at AACF or leader of a new KIPP school in the Arkansas Delta, please get in touch ASAP: ginny.blankenship@kippdelta.org. Superheroes are especially encouraged to apply.

I intend to do some recruiting of my own this season. Remember this little competition? If we still want one of the best public schools in the nation to come to Pine Bluff or another town in the Arkansas Delta in 2011 (and yes, we do), then we have to recruit the best school leader ASAP.

In order to run the next KIPP Delta middle school in Arkansas, the school leader must undergo a year-long, intensive training process, known as a Fisher Fellowship. It’s an incredible opportunity to learn and work with some of the brightest, most passionate school reformers in the nation. The priority deadline for candidates is October 30, 2009, and the final deadline is February 19, 2010. To learn more about the fellowship, visit www.kipp.org/lead.

Are you up for the challenge, or know someone who might be? Then please contact our coalition immediately at KIPPPineBluff@gmail.com, or contact KIPP Delta directly at:

KIPP Delta Public Schools
415 Ohio Street
Helena-West Helena, AR 72342
Main Office: 870-753-9035

Please spread the word to everyone you know who cares about Arkansas’s future and is ready for us to move waaaaay beyond adequacy to excellence for all of our kids, especially those at the greatest disadvantage.

This is Don and Doris Fisher. They founded The Gap, to help you look cute. They're also looking for the world's most awesome school leader right here in Arkansas. Let's not disappoint these nice people.

Update: Mr. Fisher passed away on September 27, 2009, after a long battle with cancer. What an incredible legacy he leaves behind. We definitely can’t let him down now.

. . .

Below is a picture I took of a painting by students at J.A. Fair Magnet High School, which hangs in the lobby of the AAEA’s new offices. As I can recall, the painting depicts a handful of the trillions of synapses that the brain forms while learning, superimposed over the number of minutes that most students spend in school until graduation.

Need inspiration? Watch Howard Fuller preach about the good, the bad, and the very ugly of education reform at this year’s National Charter Schools Conference.  Oh my stars.

“[I]f you’re sitting in this room today . . . and you know that in your heart, and in your soul, you don’t have the best interests of our children [at heart], then you know what? Just take your [conference] t-shirt and go home and find something else to do with your life. Just take your t-shirt and work out.”

Hallelujah, amen. Can he get a witness?

The Commercial also has some nice words of consolation for the loser:

“LESSON LEARNED OVER KIPP SCHOOL” — Pine Bluff Commercial editorial board, 8/30/09

KIPP Delta Schools selected Blytheville over Pine Bluff and West Memphis as the first site for a KIPP school outside of Helena in the Arkansas Delta. No one likes coming in second or third when your choice is, well, being first.

Congratulations to Blytheville, a city that also wanted the school for all the right reasons. We may never know all of the reasons Blytheville was picked, but our colleague John Brummett offers a well-reasoned explanation on how Blytheville was chosen in his column elsewhere on this page. The application process considered a number of factors, including local support, parental demand, and availability of facilities and funding.

We’ll be watching closely to see if the success experienced in Helena can be duplicated in Blytheville. We’re betting that it will be.

The winning application included more than 60 personal letters of support from parents, community leaders, and business partners, along with $50,000 in start-up funding for 2010. Blytheville’s community coalition also committed to raising at least $50,000 each successive year.

More than 60 individuals attended a meeting at the Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center earlier. A number made personal appeals for KIPP to choose Pine Bluff, including Trudy Redus, wife of Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr., who stated supporters will do “whatever it takes.”

Dr. Virginia Hudson “Ginny” Blankenship, a Pine Bluff native, research and fiscal policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in Little Rock and the leader of the local coalition which totaled some 150, gave a passionate endorsement for Pine Bluff.

KIPP plans on operating 12 schools in three Delta towns within a decade, including the three in Helena-West Helena and the one it will open in Blytheville. If you are interested in dollars and cents, drive down Cherry Street in downtown Helena and the only new buildings carry the KIPP logo.

Blytheville went out of its way to demonstrate repeatedly to KIPP’s board that the once divided and decaying Northeast Arkansas city has learned a valuable lesson in blacks and whites working together for the benefit of the whole community.

Mississippi County Economic Development and the Great River Economic Development Foundation sold an economic development sales tax that helped generate thousands of new jobs.

Arkansas Senate Education Committee Vice Chairman Steve Bryles has been a vocal supporter. More than once he has pointed to local public schools with falling enrollment, noting 94 percent of KIPP Delta College Prep’s seventh-graders scored proficient or advanced on the Arkansas Benchmark Exam in math, compared to 52 percent of Blytheville’s public school students and a 70 percent statewide average.

Since KIPP wants to open two more schools in 2011, Pine Bluff will have another opportunity to attract a charter school where more than 90 percent of the typical students are minorities, and more than 80 percent are growing up in poverty.The free-enrollment schools have been cited for narrowing the achievement gap in public education, with 85 percent of KIPP alumni having gone on to college.

“Our coalition still intends to do whatever it takes to make Pine Bluff KIPP’s next expansion site in 2011, and that work begins today,” Blankenship wrote Wednesday on her blog. “Pine Bluff’s students have already waited long enough.”

The whole city should be grateful to Blankenship, Redus and everyone else who worked hard to bring the school to Pine Bluff. Their commitment will be critical to making it happen in 2011.

. . .

Here’s what it feels like to win:

Would your kids say this about their own schools?

It’s now 11:36 p.m. But never too late for bribery.

Happy Friday, y’all.

Update 8/30/09: Epic fail. Could not even bribe judges for a t-shirt door prize. Would have probably helped my odds if I had done some kind of puzzle since 2006. (I got addicted to sudoku while finishing my dissertation; it was the only way to shift gears in my brain and prevent me from editing chapter 4 in my sleep. I know.)

But not all entertainment was lost: After dragging poor husband to a five-and-a-half-hour* nerd contest, I got up to go to the restroom midway through. . .and guess which Blankenship got cornered by a reporter this time?

“Begins with p: Puzzle day tests word, number skills” — Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 8/30/09

Drew Blankenship arrived with his wife to compete. She was doing Sudoko, and he was trying his hand at crosswords. “I like the appeal of crosswords, because I like words and I like to read,” Blankenship said.

Isn’t he the cutest?! KATV also ran a very serious shot of dear husband on the 10 o’clock news. I will pay good money if anyone can send me the video.

He is so going to kill me in my sleep tonight.

*BTW, dear husband, if you still think this makes up for dragging me to hundreds of hours of football games, you are 7-Across: s-o; 2-Down: w-r-o-n-g. Don’t make me show you the math.

Time to regroup, PB.

“KIPP chooses Blytheville, Pine Bluff still in running for 2011″ — The Pine Bluff Commercial, August 27, 2009

The Knowledge Is Power Program announced Wednesday that it has chosen Blytheville over Pine Bluff and West Memphis to locate a new charter school. Scott Shirey, director of the KIPP Delta Preparatory School in Helena, said Pine Bluff remains a “strong contender for a school opening in 2011” even though it was not chosen for KIPP’s second school in Arkansas.

“We were enthused by the reception we received in Pine Bluff and we feel positive about being able to bring the program to them in 2011,” he said. “We’re going to continue to work with the community this year to strengthen the application.”

Blytheville was chosen after a competitive process in which applicants had to demonstrate community support, parental demand, financial commitments and suitable facilities. The Department of Education still must approve KIPP’s charter application for the school. The Blytheville public charter school will start with a class of fifth-graders in 2010 and add a grade each year, eventually serving about 320 students in grades five through eight. It will be led by Maisie Wright.

Wright and Shirey attended a meeting last week organized by a local coalition hoping to bring the school to Pine Bluff. Similar meetings were held in Blytheville and West Memphis.

‘This is not over’

Pine Bluff native Dr. Ginny Blankenship, research and fiscal policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in Little Rock, started the coalition. She and other KIPP advocates for Pine Bluff were disappointed Wednesday but remained optimistic.

“This is not over,” Blankenship said. “We still have a chance to make something great happen in the next couple years.”

She also posted the news on her Web site, ginnyblankenship.wordpress.com, and congratulated Blytheville for its successful campaign. Blankenship said the coalition for Pine Bluff consisted of more than 150 people of various backgrounds including local business leaders, city officials such as Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr. and educators. It was formed “just six short weeks ago” when KIPP issued a request for proposals.

“Our coalition still intends to do whatever it takes to make Pine Bluff KIPP’s next expansion site in 2011, and that work begins today,” Blankenship said.

Asked how Pine Bluff could improve on its application, which Shirey iterated was “strong,” he said organizers should continue to expand the coalition and work to secure funding.

Pine Bluff Cable Television announced last week that it would donate $5,000 a year for five years to a local KIPP school.

Facilities available

“Pine Bluff had some really good facility options on the list,” Shirey said. “The facility was not a major concern. We’re confident we can work that out in the next year.”

Joy Blankenship, Dr. Blankenship’s mother-in-law and executive director of Pine Bluff Downtown Development Inc., said KIPP looked at a former Kroger store at 304 S. Chestnut St. as a possibility for the school and the old Greyhound station at 221 W. Fourth Ave. for a possible gymnasium. Both properties are owned by former Pine Bluff resident and real estate developer Elvin W. Moon.

Shirey said Blytheville’s application included more than 60 personal letters of support from parents, community leaders and business partners, along with $50,000 in start-up funding. Their coalition committed to raising at least the same amount in following years.

Key supporters there included KIPP advocate and state Senate Education Committee vice-chairman, Sen. Steve Bryles, D-Blytheville, several business and economic development entities and companies like Nucor Steel Arkansas, Aviation Repair Technology, First National Bank and Southern Bancorp.

“Really it came down to money,” Joy Blankenship said. “We’ll have to start fundraising if we want it here.”

A learning experience

Now that the community is more aware of what KIPP is, she said she thinks getting the business community’s support here will be easier in the next round. “We learned some things from it, too,” she said.

George Talbot Sr. of Talbot Capital Management Inc., another KIPP advocate, agreed. “We’ve done some work and we see what it takes to get it so I think the next go around we can really pull together a stronger proposal,” he said, adding, “I’m just happy that KIPP is interested in expanding in Arkansas.”

Shirey said while Wright was chosen by KIPP to lead the new school, the program also looks for input and support from communities to help “bring in outside talent.” He said principals at future schools — KIPP wants to open two more in 2011 — must complete a year-long Fisher Fellowship principal training program, as Wright did.

“It’s a shared responsibility,” Shirey said. “The more the community can help network and introduce great educators to KIPP, the better chance we’ll have.”

KIPP plans to grow to 12 charter schools in four communities by 2019. Shirey said the focus will remain “primarily in the Delta.” “We’ll probably open it up a little bit wider to let more communities in the Delta have the opportunity (to apply),” he said.

. . .

“Blytheville wins KIPP bid for next charter site” — The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, August 27, 2009

A nationally known charter-school network hopes to expand in the Arkansas Delta by opening a new branch in Blytheville in 2010. The impoverished Mississippi County town beat out competing bids from Pine Bluff and West Memphis for the proposed new KIPP school. KIPP, which stands for the Knowledge is Power Program, currently has an elementary, middle and high school in Helena-West Helena.

Scott Shirey, executive director of KIPP Delta Public Schools, said Wednesday that the combination of community and financial support for KIPP in Blytheville made the difference. Blytheville’s application included 60 personalized letters from parents, businessmen and community leaders and $50,000 in startup funding. There is also vacant retail space in Blytheville’s downtown that seems ideal for a new school, Shirey said.

“Pine Bluff and West Memphis are two great communi-ties that are both deserving of a KIPP school,” Shirey said. “Blytheville just showed a different level of commitment.”

Charter schools are public schools that sign operating agreements, or charters, with the state. The Arkansas Board of Education will hold hearings on new charter applicants in November. By Monday KIPP must submit a formal application outlining its plan for Blytheville.

The three-city competition for the next proposed KIPP school was unique in Arkansas, said Mary Ann Brown, the Arkansas Department of Education’s charter-school program director. Typically, charter-school proposals in Arkansas have developed as local endeavors within specific communities. “This is unchartered territory, so to speak,” Brown said.

KIPP’s national track record of successfully reaching at-risk youths makes it appealing to Delta community leaders, said Jack Poff, a leader of West Memphis’ KIPP drive.

Nationwide, KIPP serves 20,000 students at 82 schools in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

“So many of these charters are startups that who knows how they’ll perform,” Poff said. “KIPP is a well-known product, and they’re producing results. They have the ability to go into blighted areas and produce the kind of results that are necessary to move areas forward.”

KIPP will have its work cut out for it in Blytheville. Six of seven Blytheville schools are on the state’s list of schools in need of improvement due to falling short of federally mandated achievement standards. The only school not on the improvement list is a district-run charter school targeting at-risk youths. The majority of the district’s students are black and come from low-income families.

Richard Atwill, Blytheville’s superintendent, did not return a call or e-mail for comment Wednesday.

KIPP prides itself on helping historically underperforming students. At its three charter schools in Helena-West Helena, where 86 percent of students come from low-income families and 95 percent are black, KIPP students are exceeding state averages on standardized tests in a number of grades. For example, 94 percent of KIPP’s seventh-graders in Helena-West Helena scored at proficient or advanced levels on the Arkansas Benchmark Exam in math earlier this year. That compares with 52 percent proficient or advanced in Blytheville and 70 percent statewide.

Fifth-grade scores in math and literacy were both below the state average this year in KIPP’s Helena-West Helena school, however. Shirey said that’s because the students hadn’t been enrolled in the program long enough. He said the pupil’s test scores should rise as they progress toward high school.

Besides a reputation for strong community support and in-school discipline, longer school days are one of KIPP’s hallmarks. Students are in school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and also attend special class sessions every other Saturday. KIPP also holds three weeks of mandatory summer school each year.

The new KIPP school in Blytheville would be led by Maisie Wright, a KIPP math and science teacher from Helena-West Helena who began her career in education as a Teach for America Corps member. The Blytheville plan calls for starting with a class of fifth-graders next fall, and then adding a grade each year up through the eighth grade. As they did in Helena-West Helena, Shirey would like to open elementary and high schools in Blytheville.

The new KIPP school would be an open-enrollment charter school. These schools are operated by nonprofit organizations instead of traditional school districts. Charter schools operate under the terms of a five-year renewable contract with the state board. The state’s charter schools are exempt from some of the rules that govern traditional schools, so they have more flexibility to innovate. In return, they are held more accountable for student achievement. The schools are tuition-free and open to all students. If there are more applicants than available slots, as there are in Helena-West Helena, students are chosen randomly via a lottery.

KIPP ultimately wants to open 12 schools in four Arkansas Delta communities by 2019. The plan is to open two more KIPP schools in 2011.

Joy Blankenship, a leader of Pine Bluff’s effort to woo KIPP, said her city will try to attract KIPP again then. She said the city needs to start planning earlier, build up more grass-roots support and raise more startup money. Their unsuccessful drive this year raised interest in KIPP, Blankenship said, which should make it easier to build up support next year. “It’s like taking a test,” she said. “If you don’t do well the first time, you learn for the next time how to prepare.”

With 12 schools in four communities, Shirey estimates KIPP will have about 3,600 students. That should add up to about 15 percent of the Delta’s low-income student population. Shirey hopes that will mark a “tipping point” to force traditional public schools in the Delta to enact educational changes that raise student achievement. “When schools compete, students and parents win,” Shirey said. “That’s the bottom line.”

Pine Bluff did not go down without a fight — and the battle is not over yet. Over 150 people of all backgrounds began banding together when the request for proposals was issued just six short weeks ago, recognizing what KIPP has done to help the most disadvantaged students in West Helena and around the nation and what KIPP could do in our hometown. My eternal thanks to all of you who stepped up and shouted “YES!” when it would have been very easy to say “why bother?”

Our coalition still intends to do whatever it takes to make Pine Bluff KIPP’s next expansion site in 2011, and that work begins today. I hope you will all join me and our coalition in continuing this effort for as long as it takes, however much it takes. Pine Bluff’s students have already waited long enough.

We must also do whatever it takes to ensure educational excellence for all of our public schools and students in Pine Bluff and across the Delta. They need not only our financial support but also our time, our listening, our tutoring, our mentoring; they need books and computers, musical instruments and art supplies; they need after-school and summer programs to keep students engaged in learning long after the school doors are closed. There are many simple things that can and must be done by churches, businesses, non-profits, elected officials, colleges, social and professional organizations. It is not impossible to transform a whole community.

Please don’t give up on any of these students. Our future won’t forgive us.

. . .

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

—Margaret Mead

. . .

A happy ending for two of my Pine Bluff High School classmates:

“Torii Hunter’s Personal Miracle: A Tough Childhood, a Father’s Confession and a Secret Brother Who Went to West Point” — The Wall Street Journal (with video), 8/26/09

. . . .

SUPPORTERS RALLY TO ‘BRING KIPP TO PINE BLUFF’

By Amy Riggin/Pine Bluff Commercial Staff
Thursday, August 20, 2009, 8:16 AM

A coalition formed to land a charter school in Pine Bluff had a good showing of supporters Wednesday, with people joining hands and chanting “bring KIPP to Pine Bluff.”

Maisie Wright, who will lead the next new KIPP charter school in the Delta, speaks to a group in Pine Bluff about how the program works. Pine Bluff Commercial/Amy Riggin

More than 60 people attended a meeting at the Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center. Knowledge Is Power Program officials explained how the school would operate if Pine Bluff is chosen over West Memphis and Blytheville. KIPP will announce its decision Aug. 30.

Several of those in attendance made personal appeals for KIPP to choose Pine Bluff. Trudy Redus, wife of Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr., said supporters will do “whatever it takes.”

Scott Shirey, director of the KIPP Delta College Preparatory School in Helena-West Helena, was on hand along with Maisie Wright, who will lead the new KIPP school. Dr. Ginny Blankenship, a Pine Bluff native and research and fiscal policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in Little Rock, is the leader of the local coalition.

“KIPP’s results may be unprecedented,” Blankenship said before ticking off a list of positive media coverage the program has received, which focused on high test scores and 80 percent of students going on to college.

Shirey spoke of KIPP’s longer school days and “no shortcuts” philosophy — a message that was well-received by those in attendance. And he said the freedom charter schools have, particularly the ability to hire and fire teachers at will, reaps dividends because KIPP can select the most qualified.

“We outperformed the state in almost every (test) area last year,” he said. “The longer students are at KIPP, the more they start to shine.”

Wright said teachers also do “whatever it takes” to ensure success, including taking late-night calls from students, giving them rides to school and working with them after school.

Also Wednesday, Pine Bluff Cable Television general manager Marc Billingsley announced that the company would donate $25,000 to a KIPP school in Pine Bluff, should the city be chosen. The money would be payable in $5,000 installments over five years.

Financial support from the community is one of the things KIPP is looking for, Shirey said.

“The relationship has to be built between the community and the school leader,” he added. “If she (Wright) is happy and supported by friends, she’s going to be a more productive school leader for our students.”

KIPP wants to operate 12 schools in three Delta towns within 10 years, including the three in Helena-West Helena and the one it will open in 2010. The program operates 66 free, open-enrollment, public charter schools across the U.S.

Shirey said “even if you don’t care a thing about children,” people in the community should know that KIPP has had a $6 million economic impact in Helena-West Helena.

“It is coming back to life,” he said.

He also addressed concerns that existing public schools will suffer, maintaining that competition actually results in higher achievement for them as well.

“When schools compete, students win, parents win,” Shirey said.

Letter to the editor, The Pine Bluff Commercial, August 21, 2009

KIPP meeting was informative

“I went to the KIPP meeting  and it was a very good and informative meeting. I think it is a great idea to bring this type of school into our city. To have competition with the standard way of learning will raise the bar for everybody.”

Albert King, Jr.

Pine Bluff, AR

This op-ed by Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families’ board president, Freeman McKendra, reiterates my previous recommendations for how Arkansas school districts should leverage the once-in-a-lifetime financial windfall from the federal stimulus package to help move our students from “adequacy” to excellence.

To the point: they’ll only spend money differently if you make them.  It’s 10:00 p.m.; do you know where your superintendent and school board are?

“Happy ending; But will it be a lesson?” — Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial board (8/16/09, subscription required)

The “end” of predatory lending in Arkansas was celebrated earlier this week, thanks mainly to my organization’s and our partners’ years of dogged work. However, as the Dem-Gaz editorial board notes, our new state lottery will soon make the payday lending industry’s damage pale in comparison. $25 million a year? Pshaw. At least when you hand over a chunk of your salary to payday lenders, you get some of it back.

Missing at this week’s press conference was mention of what must happen next: ending predatory tax “refund anticipation loans” (RALs) with triple-digit interest rates. I’ll be releasing a study on this next battlefront in the next week or so.

“Review spurs sweeping changes in child welfare system” — Arkansas News Bureau (8/16/09)

Wonder how caseworkers’ salaries now compare to these?

“Too much gravy” — John Brummett, Arkansas News Bureau, (8/16/09)

Dip dip dip dip dip dip.

“Orderly crowd voices concerns about health care overhaul” — Arkansas News Bureau (8/16/09)

“Harsh,” but “orderly.” I guess this is progress.

“Tired-of-it-all drug user takes her case to sheriff: Mother of five comes clean, starts new life” — Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (8/16/09, subscription required)

A very sad story about what happens when families can’t even get help from multiple churches in finding health care and the alleviation of pain. Kudos to the Faulkner County officials and neighbors who’ve stepped up to do the right thing. And may God bless you and your family, Ms. Stark.

Update 8/16/09, 1:10 p.m.: Apropos of the above, I will link to today’s sermon as soon as it’s posted. I like our church’s new Associate Pastor. She’s brainy.

“Tax dodgers scramble to come clean: Deal with Switzerland frightens Americans with offshore bank accounts” — Associated Press (8/15/09)

I don’t know if there’s the same hope of rehabilitation for these folks. And don’t get me started on this guy.

“El Dorado’s city clerk says public-record trove on Web site expanding” — Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (8/16/09, subscription required)

Transparency is good. There should be more of this.

Finally, a serious analysis of higher education policy:

Happy Friday, y’all.

“[In 1997, a] company named GTech operated the Texas lottery. That year GTech’s operation faced an unprecedented threat. The state’s lottery director was sacked following revelations that GTech had put the director’s boyfriend on the company payroll while he was under indictment for bribery. A new clean-hands director, Lawrence Littwin, ordered an audit, ended GTech’s contract and put it out for re-bid. Littwin also launched an investigation into GTech’s political donations.

Then a funny thing happened. The Texas Lottery Commission fired Littwin. Almost immediately thereafter, the Bush-appointed commissioners cancelled the bidding for a new operator, though the low bidder had already been announced to replace GTech. The commissioners also halted the financial audit, ended the political payola investigation—and gave the contract back to GTech. Why did the Texas government work so hard at saving GTech’s licence? An unsigned letter to the US Justice Department points to one lobbyist to whom GTech paid fees of $23 million—Ben Barnes. The letter accuses Barnes of using his knowledge of Governor Bush’s draft-dodging to lock in GTech’s exclusive deal with the state. In court papers filed in a civil racketeering suit brought by discharged regulator Littwin, Barnes confessed that he got Bush into the Guard and took millions from GTech. Littwin asserted that other witnesses can prove the cash bought the governor’s influence to save GTech’s licence.

GTech responds, irrefutably, that it terminated the contract with Barnes before the 1997 dismissals of the lottery directors—but not before the blackmailing alleged in the anonymous letter. And, although the company denies it maintained the financial connection to Barnes.

GTech’s chairman Guy Snowden was a partner in a big real estate venture with Barnes’s wife. (In 1995, Snowden was forced to resign as chairman of GTech when a jury found he tried to bribe British billionaire Richard Branson.)

What did GTech get for their $23 million to Barnes, the man who saved Dubya from the war (to which Bush Sr happily sent other men’s sons)? Can’t say: in November 1999 GTech paid a reported $300,000 to Littwin. In return, the whistleblower agreed to seal forever Barnes’s five-hour deposition transcript about the Bush family influence on the Lottery and the Air Guard.

I’m not complaining, mind you. After all, the Bush family has given us the best democracy money can buy.

Don’t believe him? Just do a Google search for “Gtech” and “bribery.” Or look up the government documents and court records in Texas and every other place Gtech has done business.

More interesting backstory on Gtech and the South Carolina lottery from a 1999 Washington Monthly.

Well, thank goodness Gtech did think the bidding process in Arkansas was “flawed” and now wants the state to issue a new RFP.

It may not be too late for Gtech yet! Mr. Passailaigue has told the press he thinks Gtech is “a great company” with “wonderful people.”

Anybody doing a background check on Intralot? The clock is ticking. . .

Again, this is getting way too easy.

By Erin France/OF THE COMMERCIAL
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 11:09 PM CDT

Pine Bluff is in the running for a new business — a charter school in the nationally recognized Knowledge Is Power Program, or KIPP.

Scott Shirey, school director of the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) Delta College Preparatory School in Helena-West Helena, addresses the Pine Bluff Rotary Club Tuesday afternoon at the Pine Bluff Country Club. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

Scott Shirey, school director of the KIPP Delta College Preparatory School in Helena-West Helena, came to the Pine Bluff Rotary Club’s Tuesday meeting at the Pine Bluff Country Club.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to bring KIPP to Pine Bluff,” he said.

Pine Bluff is competing with Blytheville and West Memphis to attain the free public charter school program scheduled to open in 2010 that champions hours of homework, longer school days and accountability.

Residents have formed a coalition to bring the schools into the city and plan to meet Aug. 19 at 5:30 p.m. at the Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center.

Shirey said there’s usually a mixed reaction to the KIPP schools.

“Some people think we’re the worst thing that ever happened. Some people think we’re the best thing that ever happened,” he said.

For Shirey, he said it’s a matter of figures.

Since arriving in Helena-West Helena, not only have KIPP students improved their scores — students in the competing school district have seen their scores raised as well, he said.

“If you don’t care a thing about academics — don’t care a thing about the students — there’s the economic argument,” Shirey said.

“We were the first new construction on Cherry Street in Helena-West Helena in 10 years.”

He said as the school grows, so do local job opportunities.

“When you drive down Cherry Street, it’s coming back to life,” he said. “It’s all centered around students.”

Shirey said the program will start with 5th graders and expand as the first students complete grades.

Dr. Clifton Roaf, a Pine Bluff dentist and former school board member, said he was glad to see enthusiasm for the program.

“The creator puts brain power everywhere,” he said. “It’s up to us to find these great brains and take it from a rock to a diamond.”

“Every day the lottery is not in operation means fewer scholarships for students,” [the lottery director] said.

No, it doesn’t, but this is the line that lottery proponents keep reeling out all across the state. Apparently the Arkansas Department of Higher Education and I have not made ourselves clear. Let me try again:

Arkansas already has $103 million in the bank — right now — in unclaimed scholarships that either tens of thousands of students didn’t know about, weren’t able to get help from their school counselors or teachers (or parents) in applying for, and/or did not earn the relatively low grade point average or test scores to get or to keep, for a myriad of reasons (more on that later).

Our state does not have an urgent need to raise more tax revenue for college scholarships by ramming through a lottery, paid for on the backs of the poor and those least likely to ever receive a scholarship of their own. It has an urgent need to rethink how we’re preparing all students to enter and graduate from our 2-year and 4-year colleges and to make sure that every existing opportunity is made widely and easily available to those students and families who want to take advantage of them, and in fact, have already helped pay for them through their own tax dollars.

I’m tired of talking about this, and I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing it. Believe me, my personality is really not one of constant fault-finding or attention-seeking.* But the lottery commission is making it all too easy.

Take for example this gem of a PowerPoint presented at Political Animals Club in Northwest Arkansas on Monday, provided courtesy of Ozarks Unbound (which also has the entire audio and a video interview with Mr. Passailaigue. I’ve gotta figure out how to do that.). Here’s the very first bullet point from the very first slide:

HISTORY OF LOTTERIES

• Biblical references – Moses use [sic] of lotteries to purchase land*

When Israel was in Egypt's land / Let my people go gambliiiiiiin'.

*Weird — I just reread the Book of Numbers, and that’s not really in my copy. I’m certainly no Biblical scholar, but I’m pretty sure that in our state’s current context, this is not what our Creator had in mind. I’ll have to ask my Methodist and Baptist pastor friends. Somehow I don’t think they’re going to be happy with the commission’s implication. [Update, 8/13/09: Boy, did I get an earful. More on that later.]

I doubt that whichever poor staffer had to throw this presentation together had time to really think through how it would play in this state. Apparently the slide referenced above was heavily borrowed from the gambling industry’s website. I think slide #6 is my favorite, though.

I don’t mean to be snotty; I just prefer that our state gets its lottery research from someone other than companies that stand to make scads of taxpayers’ money off the lottery. Call me crazy.

Anywho. More interesting tax history here from Mental Floss magazine. Questionable, but interesting.

*I know I’ve been a bit obsessed with this lately, but it’s all over my peep’s Facebooks right now. Fascinating!

“Arkansas will have a lottery that doesn’t litter the countryside with billboards or prey on the poor, Ernie Passailaigue, Arkansas Lottery Commission executive director, said Monday at a meeting of the Political Animals Club of Northwest Arkansas.

“‘I don’t want you to go down the highway and see billboard after billboard of lottery,’ Passailaigue told the crowd of about 150, after commenting on the beauty of the Ozark Mountains. ‘It’s going to be a low-key advertising operation.’”

I think that’s a mighty fine idea. Thank you, Mr. Passailaigue.

Update, 8/11/09, 2:19 p.m.:

And another thing….

“How ethics disappear” — Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial board, 8/11/09

“Here in Arkansas, it’s a constant wonder how careless politicians are about ethical restraints. Various legislators see nothing wrong with recommending constituents and/or cronies for jobs with the fast growing and all-enveloping Arkansas Lottery, aka The Python. Here’s one example of this legislative lassitude about basic ethics: A state rep from Conway, Linda Tyler, didn’t hesitate to recommend a constituent for a job with the lottery because his “knowledge of the convenience store market is extensive and he has an excellent long term work record that in today’s time is difficult to find.” She says she was just forwarding her constituent’s résumé to the lottery, but her words sound like a hearty recommendation to us. And she’s not the only legislator to recommend folks for a job with the lottery.

“Are these reps so naive they believe the higher-ups at the lottery won’t remember which politicians were interested in finding a job for a friend/constituent? Especially when the lottery needs a favor from the Ledge. That’s how these things work in real life. One hand washes the other.

“Nor is this practice restricted to legislators. The state’s lite gov and godfather of its lottery, Bill Halter, spoke to the Lotto Man himself, Ernie Passailaigue, about giving an old acquaintance a job. No building a fence around the law for our lieutenant governor. It is all just too cozy for comfort, or should be. And something tells us it’s going to get a lot cozier as the Great Arkansas Lottery and Anaconda wraps itself around the state, and especially around its politicians.

“So let’s hear it for a couple of legislators who haven’t engaged in this dubious practice: David Johnson of Little Rock and Mary Anne Salmon of North Little Rock, both Democrats and both state senators. Both are also members of the legislative committee set up to oversee the lottery’s operation.

“But others on the same committee aren’t being as high-minded. It would be a good thing if Senators Johnson and Salmon were to set the example for the rest of the committee. And the rest of the Legislature. Or even if their ethical sensibility filtered up to the U.S. Congress.”

This isn’t the last you’ll be hearing about this. I’m just telling you what I heard.

COALITION HOPES TO LAND CHARTER SCHOOL IN PINE BLUFF (8/9/09)

At the end of this month members of a coalition to bring a new charter school to Pine Bluff will find out whether their efforts paid off to land the school over West Memphis and Blytheville. The Coalition to Bring KIPP Delta Public Schools to Pine Bluff organized last month after KIPP Delta Inc. informed the state Department of Education it intended to open a school in one of the three cities.

Joy Blankenship, executive director of Pine Bluff Downtown Development Inc., said her daughter-in-law, Dr. Ginny Blankenship, started the coalition. Dr. Blankenship is director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in Little Rock, but grew up in Pine Bluff. She was unavailable for comment.

But Joy Blankenship offered some insight as to why Dr. Blankenship started the effort. “She just feels strongly about the community that she grew up in and wants to help it,” Joy Blankenship said. . . .

There is one other open-enrollment charter school in Pine Bluff, Hope Academy, which opened in 2007 and serves grades five through eight. Director Earl Glass said he would welcome KIPP to Pine Bluff. “I feel that you can’t provide too many options for children to be educated,” he said. “KIPP has a beautiful history of success so I’m not against them. Much of what we do has been patterned from what they’ve done.” Glass said Scott Shirey, executive director of KIPP Delta Public Schools, was more than happy to help — “whatever he can provide he gives it to us.”

KIPP AIMS TO PUT KIDS ON PATH TO COLLEGE (8/9/09)

According to KIPP, more than 90 percent of its students are minorities and more than 80 percent of KIPP students are eligible for the federal free and reduced-price meals program. Students are accepted regardless of prior academic record, conduct or socioeconomic background. They are admitted through a lottery. KIPP maintains that after four years, 100 percent of eighth grade classes nationally outperformed the local district averages in math and reading/English. More than 80 percent of students who complete eighth grade at KIPP attend college.

KIWANIS CLUB LEARNS ABOUT DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT (8/9/09)

Revitalizing downtown has been the mission of Pine Bluff Downtown Development for 21 years. Joy Blankenship, the group’s executive director, spoke to the Kiwanis Club recently about the progress being made to improve the city’s image and economy.

“We in Pine Bluff must build a productive and skilled work force that will contribute to the tax base and reduce social and economic costs of poverty,” she said. Downtown Development partnered with the city and county governments and with the Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County to accomplish their goals, she said.

“Analysis: Lotto missteps renew debate over games” (8/9/09)

“Opponents of Arkansas’ lottery want a rematch.

“It’s been nine months since voters approved a constitutional amendment authorizing a state-run lottery to fund college scholarships, but the state Lottery Commission is giving opponents ammunition for a renewed debate on the games.

“From an advocacy group posting an open letter to the state’s lottery director on the lottery’s drawbacks, to a state senator proposing a repeal of the lottery law, it’s easy to confuse the latest fight with last year’s campaign rhetoric.”

See here for the backstory on all that mess.

Update (8/10/09): Now it’s the top story over at Arkansas Business. Look, dad — I’m being business-y!

“Findings out; watch over kids to change: State to shake up social-work ranks”

“New funding to speed foster care system improvements” — Arkansas News Bureau, 8/8/09

Thank you, Governor Beebe, Janie Huddleston, Jennifer Ferguson, and everyone else who is looking out for our state’s most vulnerable children and families every day.

Thousands of kids still need our help. Please think about supporting AACF’s work, serving as a foster parent, or adopting a child.

Thankfully, we won’t have to watch the sort-of Mississippi-based Ramey Agency keep steering their train wreck across our state. The lottery marketing contract is going to Rex Nelson at the Arkansas-based Communications Group. Although I disagree entirely with the lottery’s implementation thus far, if the state insists on advertising the thing, I’m at least glad that he’ll be the one to do it. He seems like a good guy who actually cares about poverty and the Delta. A very nice, very generous guy, thank you very much, indeed.

Lots of weird coincidences with Rex Nelson lately. I also just found out that he has handled communications for the state’s ARKids First health insurance program (which my organization basically founded), since back when he worked for Gov. Huckabee. Small state.

So please be mindful with the whole lottery thing, Rex. And don’t forget: I have a blog, too, and I’m not afraid to use it. ;)

8:00 a.m.: Take one of the four comp days I’ve earned in the past three weeks. Yay!!

8:00 a.m.: Just kidding. Slog through 1,704 work emails from the past three weeks, magically solve everyone’s “urgent” data crises, and finish a new report on how “rapid tax refunds” and tax preparation fees are ripping off over half of the families in Arkansas and eating away at the state’s $566+ million in federal EITC benefits every year. Prepare for hate mail from the tax and predatory lending industries and Magic Johnson.

6:00 p.m.: Huff and puff with my peeps across the Big Dam Bridge for the Methodist Family Health’s 3rd Annual Walk for Children and Families. Ugh. I’m way out of shape. See if I can bring Maisy.

Saturday, 8/8/09:

9:00 a.m.-ish: Beg another nerd to take me to the Arkansas Book & Paper Show @ the Jacksonville Community Center.

12:00 p.m.-ish: Clap clap, clap clap clap, clap clap clap clap:

DOG SHOW!

Check to see if it’s too late to enter Maisy.

4:00 p.m.: Finish the Netflix movie that’s been sitting here for at least two months. [Update, 8/13/09: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a beautiful screenplay, beautifully shot. I didn't realize that it was based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Mr. Pitt also makes for a beautiful baby.]

Sunday, 8/9/09:

8:30 a.m.: Try to get husband up in time for church.

1:00 p.m.: Track this group’s every move.

5:00 p.m.: I’m all open.

Happy weekend, y’all.