school boards
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders reverses predecessor’s position on mask mandates
The Arkansas governor’s office asserts that it is unconstitutional for public entities to require people to wear masks as a COVID-19 prevention measure, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Wednesday, just over a week after taking office. Sanders’ predecessor, fellow Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, signed a 2021 law prohibiting state and local governments, including public school […]
Dozens of mayoral seats up for grabs in Tuesday’s runoff elections
Thirty-four mayoral races will be decided in Tuesday’s runoff election. Seventeen include incumbents like Linda Newbury in Union County. The Felsenthal mayor is facing Theresa Howard after both candidates received 24 votes in the general election. More than 70 elections for mayoral, city council and school board positions are occurring in thirty-nine counties statewide. There […]
Bentonville school board election garners attention of national conservative group
In a Bentonville School Board election with a dozen candidates seeking five positions, Jennifer Faddis stands out: she’s the only incumbent running. The seven-member board restructured itself last year, creating two at-large positions and five geographic zones. Previously, all seven members represented specific areas. The at-large members are not up for re-election. Faddis joined the […]
An ‘unprecedented flood’ of book bans engulfs U.S. school districts, PEN report says
WASHINGTON — More than 1,600 book titles across 32 states were banned from public schools during the 2021-2022 school year, with the bulk of the ban requests coming from a handful of right-wing groups pushing for censorship of books that feature LGBTQ+ characters and characters of color, a new report issued Monday said. “What I […]
The dwindling local news environment makes us all less informed
(This commentary has been updated to reflect new information. See editor’s note at end.) People have a right to know what their government is doing in their name. As the editor of a small weekly newspaper in Louisiana in the late 1970s, I helped uncover insider dealing by a city commissioner and regularly covered a […]