Governor Huckabee's
Press Release
July 17, 2003
Governor's Statement on Education
Gov. Mike Huckabee issued the following statement:
Thursday morning: "I've been promoting a broad buffet of academics for Arkansas students at an affordable price. It appears the recommendation from the consultants is that we instead give them a plate of meat loaf for the price of a ribeye.
Pouring hundreds of millions of new tax dollars into the current mediocre system doesn't make sense to me. But if the consultants advise it, the legislators accept it, the superintendents demand it, the attorney general is willing to defend it and the business community and other Arkansas taxpayers are willing to pay for it, it will probably happen. But I won't support it. Other than a handful of newspaper columnists, the prevailing plaintiffs' attorneys in the Lake View case and a small group of legislators, I feel I'm pretty much a voice crying in the wilderness. But since our state's business leaders and other taxpayers have said and done very little, they need to get ready to pay 40 percent to 50 percent more to pretty much keep in place the educational system they already have. I still believe real education reform is more important than a king's ransom in new taxes."