Students travel to state capitol

Students take part in Education Advocacy Day

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

— Twelve Decatur High School students attended the Arkansas Opportunity to Learn Campaign Education Advocacy Day at the Arkansas Capitol Building in Little Rock on Feb. 20.

A total of 200 people, including teachers and students from across the state, participated in the rally, according to teacher and trip sponsor James Garner.

Students had the opportunity to watch committee sessions and see people give testimony to promote legislation, Garner said.

“It was a good experience for them to see that process,” he said.

Students also had a chance to listen to the speakers at the rally, held inside the old Supreme Court building, he said.

Arkansas Opportunity to Learn is a part of the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign. It is a collaboration of local, state and national organizations, grass-roots community leaders, policy-makers, youth organizers, business leaders and philanthropic partners working to ensure that every public school in the nation provides each child with the opportunity for a high-quality education, according to the organization’s website, www.otlcampaign.org.

Speakers at the rally discussed proposed legislation that would allow students to have vouchers at private school as well as opposition to House Bill 1040, that would give out-of-state charter companies authority to take over low performing districts.

Bobby Shaw, a senior at Decatur High School, said the most interesting part of the trip was listening to the speakers at the rally talk about education.

“You could honestly tell they really cared,” he said.

The bills are set up where the kids are the ones who lose, said Haley Burden, a freshman at Decatur High School. The people who are pushing for the bills stand to make a profit, she said.

“I’ve never really been around a group of people that really cared about education that much,” Shaw said.

Shaw said it was the first time he had a chance to see the inside of the Capitol building, although he’s driven past it before.

“It was really nice to go down to see the Capitol building and see how it works,” he said.

News, Pages 8 on 02/27/2013