Board strips Little Rock teachers’ union bargaining power

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – The Arkansas Board of Education has stripped the
bargaining power of the Little Rock teachers’ union and has backed off a plan to only return some local control to the district after facing criticism that the move would divide the system along racial lines.

The board on Thursday ended the Little Rock Education Association’s bargaining power shortly after the panel voted to give control of the 23,000-student district to a board that will be elected in November 2020. The state took over the district in January 2015 because of low test scores at several schools.

An earlier plan the board approved last month to give limited control to the district prompted comparisons to 1957 crisis over Central High’s desegregation.

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