A Good Week in Arkansas State Government

Sometimes it is easy to get locked into a negative outlook when you are a freedom lover covering government goings-on. I don't want that to happen to me. Good things happened in Arkansas Government this week, and I don't want to let them pass without comment.

1) Advanced placement scores in Arkansas are going up, and going up at a faster rate than other states even though the percentage of Arkansas students taking the test is also increasing. That last bit is critical because it does not simply mean that weaker students are being weeded out. It looks like either real gains or real increased opportunity. The schools are doing something right in AP courses, and/or since the state started paying for the tests the students themselves have made the most of the opportunity. This was a bit like what happened after WWII and the GI bill. Even though college enrollment went up, the academic level stayed high because there were plenty of people in our population smart enough to be in college but had lacked opportunity. Something good is happening with the AP part of Arkansas schools.

2) It looks like we may get more of our money back than originally planned. The grocery tax cut is going through, and the tax credit may still go through. Even a reduction in the sales tax used on utilities used for manufacturing (which never should have been levied since that is not a retail sale) is looking prettty good.

3) The ERA was exposed for what it was, and was voted down. The primary sponsor had introduced a bill her first term to make homosexuals a protected civil rights class. She tried to do it through the front door. The ERA, as Justice Ruth Ginsburg wrote in her book, would allow that to happen through the back door.