This time of year, way too long ago (how???), I would be getting ready for school. I wasn't overly fond of the place, but didn't really have choice in the matter. My family couldn't afford to send me to a private school in Fort Smith, the closest city that had such a thing (which, if I remember correctly for the time, would have been all church schools). We weren't alone in that, being out in the country. Private schools don't have to provide transportation, and not everyone lives within a reasonable enough distance (and in accordance with parents' work schedules) to get their kids to a school without that provision.

That hasn't really changed. A report from the Learning Policy Institute in March found that there are 1,084 public schools in Arkansas, and an estimated 149 private schools, only 26 of which are nonsectarian (as some parents believe they, not schools, are responsible for their children's religious instruction). Of those private schools, 72.8 percent are in urban or suburban areas.

There are multiple counties with no private schools at all. In my home county, kids from poor rural areas would have no choice but public schools unless their families had the wherewithal and time to drive them to Fort Smith every day (in my current county, you could probably throw a........

© Arkansas Online