“The (Education) department’s performance measures are inadequate and must be strengthened.” Policy Foundation, “Arkansas Efficiency Project, 2016
(June 2018) It pays to be a Little Rock School District employee more than a top state official.
The Little Rock School District, the subject of a 2015 state takeover paid 102 officials more than $89,301, the new annual salary of Arkansas’ Auditor of State, Secretary of State and Treasurer.1
Little Rock administrators received a cumulative $10,780,258 in 2016, according to public records compiled by OpenTheBooks.com, a non-profit. The group has yet to compile Little Rock records for 2017 or 2018 on its site.
The Little Rock School District had 4,068 employees2 and 23,164 students3 in the 2015-16 school year, according to records compiled by OpenTheBooks.com and the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE).
Little Rock per pupil spending was $13,281 in 2015-16 versus the $9,701 state average, ADE records show.
Enrollment declined to 22,759 students in 2016-17 when the district spent $12,851 versus the $9,807 state average, ADE records show.
State Takeover
The state Board of Education voted to take over the Little Rock School District in January 2015. ADE classified six Little Rock schools as being in academic distress, based on poor student performance on state tests.
About OpenTheBooks.com
The non-profit’s mission to report, “Every Dime. Online. In Real Time.” The group has “captured nearly 4 billion public expenditures,” and is “rapidly growing” its data “in all 50 states down to the municipal level.
–Greg Kaza
1 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, “Arkansas elected officials get final approval for 3% rise in pay; move will cost state $1.2M a year,” May 16, 2018
2 OpenTheBooks.com
3 ADE, “Arkansas School Performance Report Cards, 2015-16,” https://adesrc.arkansas.gov/
