ARKANSAS, USA — Educational cooperatives throughout the state help teachers and students with their curriculum, acting as a mode of communication between the state and local school districts. Now, they're facing funding cuts.
State officials recently told the cooperatives throughout the state that their funding would be cut.
“It has a big impact as far as us not being able to have up to date knowledge of what's going on,” Christy McClellan, a teacher at Hackett elementary said. “The specialists know our teachers, our school districts, they know what we need.”
McClellan added that limiting staff at co-ops will make it harder for teachers in the classroom trying to address all the standards their students need.
Jim Ford, Director of the Guy Fenter Education Service Cooperative, says the state told his company that starting July, they would only fund three of the eight specialists he has on staff.
In a pre-fiscal session budget hearing on March 7, Arkansas Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva says the state needs to reevaluate funds if they're not seeing a return on investment.
“We have let these co-ops know, ‘don't just guarantee and expect you're going to get this funding,'” Oliva said. “We’re going to reevaluate how these districts are being reported cause the reality is, literacy and numeracy data hasn’t been improving.”
Dr. Curtis Varnell, a regional science specialist at the Guy Fenter co-op, says the move to reduce funding comes as a surprise given what says he heard from the state just a year ago.
"Every one of us has our evaluations, which said, we're meeting all those,” Varnell said. The state director, a year ago, came in and he talked about how great we were doing, how exceptional of a group. So, what's changed?"
Teachers at Hackett Elementary say Varnell is a crowd favorite amongst their students, helping guide science-based lessons, experiments, and field trips.
After 30 years working in education, Varnell says he will retire to allow one of his co-workers to keep their job.
“I'm old enough to retire,” Varnell said. “My interest in this is what is best for the kids and what's best for our local schools. I went out immediately and retired because I can, to keep my fellow specialists from having to retire. I'm only here today, because I think we need the word out and I think people need to understand what's happening."
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