William Marvel: Hand over Fist

The Conway School District has two simultaneous failings. The first is academic, and the other is financial. It would be deplorable enough if students’ assessment results had dropped as low as they have over the past dozen years, even if the cost to taxpayers were not so onerous. At the same time, even above-average academic performance could not compensate for how heavy an economic burden Conway’s schools have become.

In that respect, we have the worst of both worlds — unacceptably high cost, aggravated by the insult of disappointing scholastic results. Our educational leadership seems unable to make more than minimal headway in performance, and unwilling to address cost at all.