The Arkansas state board of education will oversee the Little Rock school system after voting last week to dissolve the district’s school board immediately but keep the current superintendent in his job for now.
The vote came after a special meeting in which dozens of legislators, parents, students, and community members testified both for and against state intervention.
Nearly 45 percent of the district’s 25,000 students attend schools that are deemed to be underperforming.
The takeover comes nearly a year after the state supreme court approved an agreement between the state and several Little Rock-area school systems to end aid to those districts aimed at improving integration.
