Public School Closures Are An Attack On Arkansans Of Color

Heather Collins The Little Rock School District is not as much under attack as are the innocent children that represent the majority of students that are currently attending schools in our district: black and brown children who come from predominantly low-income homes. Like many major metropolitan cities in the United States, Little Rock is experiencing the evils of unfounded and manufactured fear about black and brown children that translates beyond white flight and into a calculated systemic effort by U.S. billionaires, like the Walton Family ― who are natives of Arkansas ― to create a new form of discrimination: charter schools and voucher systems. In Little Rock, there is no coincidence that as the LRSD administration decided to close public schools, they have primarily closed schools that are in predominantly black and predominantly low-income communities. “Innocent black and brown children in our city are being violated by state laws that protect the interest of the billionaires.” There likely would have been no “Gangbanging in Little Rock,” had there been support from LRSD administrators, the city of Little Rock, and business community members to prevent the closure of Ish Elementary School and Garland Elementary School.