I’m just going to tell you what happened and you can make of it what you will.
I was in a conference room high in a downtown Little Rock office tower on Sunday afternoon letting Bill Halter, the candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, explain to me his proposed “Arkansas Promise.”
That is his idea to give Arkansas a fighting chance in this rapidly changing economy by guaranteeing every Arkansas school kid with a 2.5 grade-point average a tuition-paid college education in the state. He would use his lottery scholarships as the foundation, then plug in grants, donations and, he thinks, no more than $50 million to $75 million a year in general revenue.
A $50,000 investment in a youngster’s higher education could produce, studies show, an additional million dollars in lifetime income. Halter thinks that’s a pretty good deal.
He says if we don’t move aggressively to catch up and gain ground, then we will go backward in a world that now moves this fast: One of our biggest companies, Google, didn’t exist when today’s 10th graders were born. Another, Facebook, is not yet 10 years old.
The next billion-dollar phenomenon that will have changed the world in 10 years probably hasn’t been thought of yet, he said. And you have to be educated to hope to be a part of it, he said.
So, anyway, what happened: Halter was telling me of his distress that Arkansas has always been 48th or 49th in every meaningful ranking. He was telling me that the typical Arkansas tragedy is that, somewhere along the way, low-paid Arkansas parents accept the reality that they can’t afford to send their kids to college, and the kids get that signal, and dreams vanish. And he was telling me that the great equalizer in our society is the maternity ward, where everybody shares the same concern — that the baby will be fine — and everyone shares the same dream, that the kid soon to enter the world will get a college education. And then it doesn’t happen for many of those parents and those kids.
He became emotional. His eyes dampened and he had to pause.
So is this the robotic, overly opportunistic, cynically ambitious, personally remote Bill Halter whom I and others have described?
Or have we found a real and noble passion within?
It’ll be a long governor’s race in 2014. Maybe we can answer that along the way.
Halter seems to be banking on the notion that this governor’s race could be about something different from the state’s mad rush to right-wing extremism and different as well from a columnist’s personality-driven, poll-driven commentary.
In the land of Tea Party, if your parents can’t afford to send you to college then it’s simply motivation for them to get a better job. It’s a lot like health care in that way. After all, anyone can choose to be a millionaire, just as people choose to work at minimum wage without benefits because they’re lazy.
Fish
18 Mar 13 at 10:00 am
[...] John Brummett blogs about Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Halter’s big idea — a free college education for all high school graduates with a 2.5 GPA. He’d base it on lottery receipts, augmented by grants and some general revenue support. It’s a big idea, sure enough. Brummett writes also of Halter’s passion for the possibilities. [...]
Bill Halter’s ‘Arkansas Promise’ | Education Look
18 Mar 13 at 10:03 am
Let’s assume the extra million in earnings accrues over forty years of work life, and is taxed by the state at 7%. (It won’t be). That equals $70,000. That is a very poor 40 year return on an invested $50,000. In fact, it is a negative return, considering inflation.
Can we please stop following politicians who tear up? We don’t need weepers. And, personally, I like Bill Halter, because you say that he is robotic and remote. Now I may have to vote against him.
matthew horan
18 Mar 13 at 11:45 am
He may have been crying because he knows deep down that a tired, out of date R named ASA will beat him- right or wrong
mike graves
18 Mar 13 at 11:55 am
What simple math! While the income tax supplies approximately half the state’s tax revenues a million+ earner will also generate sales taxes, extra property taxes, use taxes.
You never want a Republican running an economy.
Matthew H is a Republican
18 Mar 13 at 12:48 pm
John, I really feel what you are saying but I worry that too many Arkansans have been dissuaded, beatened down and made to believe hope is a joke and that because they were born here they shouldn’t hope for anymore, that if you get a good paying minimum wage job, afford a good trailer home and a nice pick up truck less than 10-years old-you’ve actually made it! Too many people have been made to believe that Government is too big and shouldn’t be trying to do so many things for people. Its obvious even in the people we elect to serve us in Washington, D.C. – most all of our elected official basic belief is that they hate Government, want to shrink Government, Government is too involved in our lives except in the bedroom, the control of women bodies and making sure we return to the wild west days where everyone had a gun (but somehow forget most western marshalls required removing your weapons and not bringing them into town) and educating our children should be left to the State until a state official actually has ideas about improving education! We are so all over the radar in so many areas it’s hard to keep up other than wondering if people ever question what they think and why.
Nathaniel McGee
18 Mar 13 at 1:31 pm
[...] By jbrummett [...]
Bill Halter, pausing, with dampened eyes | Track the Hill
18 Mar 13 at 1:52 pm
[...] John Brummett blogs about Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Halter’s big idea — a free college education for all high school graduates with a 2.5 GPA. He’d base it on lottery receipts, augmented by grants and some general revenue support. It’s a big idea, sure enough. Brummett writes also of Halter’s passion for the possibilities. [...]
Bill Halter's 'Arkansas Promise' | Track the Hill
18 Mar 13 at 2:14 pm
[...] John Brummett blogs about Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Halter’s big idea — a free college education for all high school graduates with a 2.5 GPA. He’d base it on lottery receipts, augmented by grants and some general revenue support. It’s a big idea, sure enough. Brummett writes also of Halter’s passion for the possibilities. [...]
Bill Halter’s ‘Arkansas Promise’ | Education Guide
18 Mar 13 at 2:21 pm
[...] By jbrummett [...]
Bill Halter, pausing, with dampened eyes | Tracker
18 Mar 13 at 2:40 pm
[...] John Brummett blogs about Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Halter’s big idea — a free college education for all high school graduates with a 2.5 GPA. He’d base it on lottery receipts, augmented by grants and some general revenue support. It’s a big idea, sure enough. Brummett writes also of Halter’s passion for the possibilities. [...]
Bill Halter's 'Arkansas Promise' | Tracker
18 Mar 13 at 3:11 pm
Yee-hah!!! Free college for everyone! Raise those young-uns to go to college even if they don’t want to, or shouldn’t go. In the mean time, raise those taxes to pay for that “no more than $50 million to $75 million a year in general revenue”. How much is that per person? How much will you have to pay for this each year? And as far as the lottery, it’s already following the pattern of other states. After an optimistic start, interest in playing for fool’s gold is waning and the amount per scholarship is dwindling. BTW, who spends more per capita on lottery tickets? Why the “low-paid Arkansas parents…that can’t afford to send their children to college”–the very ones Halter is supposedly helping. As far as really helping raise education standards in the state, Halter should look at two things: 1) A solid Vo-Tech support system for people who can’t or won’t take the college route. The trades they learn can lead to very high paying jobs. And we will need those trades people desperately in the next few years. 2) Finding a verifiable way to increase teacher effectiveness (i.e. rewarding the good ones, removing the bad ones). This will increase student’s scores and the ones who want to go to college can then be rewarded.
Who_Got_Yur_Back
18 Mar 13 at 5:13 pm
I’m not sure where the money will come from, but I can’t think of a better way to spend state money than on higher education for any kid with the academic ability to use it. If the only return we could expect was repayment in increased taxes, the investment might not be worth it, but there are many intangible returns when people are educated. Even the economic returns have a multiplier effect. I just wish this were national policy. But I’m a wild-eyed liberal who believes in “socialistic” things like publicly funded education for those who’ll take it.
Chip
18 Mar 13 at 5:41 pm
There is nothing extreme about common sense conservatism. We also need more focus on non.college trade training. School.choice vouchers would also increase competition and quality in both private and public schools.
PeteJC
18 Mar 13 at 8:09 pm
I’m no Republican shill, but I am a 30-year veteran of the public school classroom and a graduate of an Arkansas high school. I’ve seen the public school curruculim and standards of student behavior deteriorate since the Fifties. A student who can’t manage to earn better than a 2.5 grade average these days can’t have made much of an effort. He certainly doesn’t merit a free ticket to college.
Maeve Maddox
18 Mar 13 at 8:47 pm
Halter sounds like he has attainable goals for our young adults. I am all for education. Veteran’s get help with college, anyone over sixty can go to state college in AR for free, therefore why not help our young people earn an education and have a better future.
L Taylor
18 Mar 13 at 9:11 pm
I’ve been teaching high school, public, in Arkansas for 24 years. Any student who’s capable of succeeding in college needs an ACT score of 19 or 20 AND at least a 3.0 GPA. There are plenty of wasted Lottery scholarships now on students who qualify as seniors then wash out at college.
Revamping the Vo-Tec schools would make so much sense, too much sense. Somebody decided in the late 80′s that all students are capable and should pursue a 4-year degree, clearly absent a reality check of jobs and students.
T Eubanks
19 Mar 13 at 9:57 am
This is a great idea. I am a product of the middle class dream. My parents had a college and post graduate education, landed well paying, secure careers that they were in for over 25 years. Thanks to them and to my grandparents, who helped fund our educations, my siblings and I have earned degrees and are successful in our respective fields. Two of us are working right here in AR, thus contributing to our local economies. Countries like Sweden and Denmark have similar programs, and they’re doing just fine economically. So, the notion that this will add to our debt, cause taxes to be too high, is preposterous.
H. Smith
19 Mar 13 at 2:02 pm
@T Eubanks
Where are your stats that lottery scholarship students have washed out in college? I must have missed that information somewhere.
Also, some students blossom in college whereas their high school grades were a disappointment. The best investment for our youth is their health and education.
L Taylor
19 Mar 13 at 4:05 pm