LRSD Superintendent Kurrus urges state to remember district needs before approving charter expansion

As part of his monthly report before the state Board of Education this morning, Little Rock School District Superintendent Baker Kurrus asked the panel to consider the practical impact on the LRSD of two proposed expansions of existing charter schools in Little Rock, eStem and LISA Academy.

EStem, which is currently located in downtown Little Rock and has a sizable waiting list, announced plans in August to build a new high school on the University of Arkansas at Little Rock campus. It's on an aggressive growth trajectory: John Bacon, CEO of eStem, said at the time that the system aims to serve 5,000 students by 2025, from its current enrollment of 1,452. A separate charter system, LISA Academy, has a proposal to open a new elementary in West Little Rock which will also soon be before the state.

As the state-controlled LRSD labors to turn around its six schools in academic distress — and also address other challenges district-wide, including aging facilities and the coming loss of millions of dollars in state desegregation funding — the district's situation won't be made any easier by the expansion of charter schools. Every child sent to a charter rather than to a school in the LRSD amounts to thousands of dollars of per-pupil funding gone from district coffers. Plus, since students from families that choose charters are more likely to be academically on grade level or above, increased charter competition tends to bleed the district of higher-performing students.

"You have some decisions on your plate," Kurrus told the board in regards to upcoming charter applications, although he did not mention either eStem or LISA by name. "That should ask you to do some thinking, to seek some data."


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