The following is a deeper dive into the tremendous risk we face of losing our State Board of Education to extremists, adapted from a piece by former Lawrence BOE member Marcel Harmon. Where Things Currently Stand After the 2022 elections we were left with six traditional State Board of Education members, and four extremists embracing various policy positions of anti-public education activists. These included Danny Zeck in District 1, Michelle Dombrosky in District 4, Cathy Hopkins in District 5, and Dennis Hershberger in District 7, the latter two defeating more centrist opponents in the primaries. During their candidacies...
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Do Your Legislators Support Vouchers?
Legislators and candidates who claim to support vouchers (whether they say tax credit scholarships, ESAs or some other made up reference to helping kids in so-called failing schools) and claim to support public education are either being dishonest or willfully ignorant. There will be a renewed effort to pass vouchers in 2025 and legislators’ past votes are more reliable indications of their true level of support for public education than public statements during their campaigns. On March 15, 2023, 64 members of the Kansas House voted to pass an Education Savings Account (ESA) bill modeled after Arizona’s disastrous...
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Leave a Comment State Board of Education Roster
The Kansas State Board of Education is at risk of being taken over by extremists. We believe these candidates, including incumbents Chair Melanie Haas and Betty Arnold, will be strong, traditional board members who will ensure Kansas children get the best opportunity for a high quality education....
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Leave a Comment The future of Kansas public schools is on the ballot. So are culture war candidates
“The Kansas State Board of Education often goes unnoticed, both by voters and the media, in the hurly-burly of state politics. It would be a mistake to overlook these races this fall. The future of our schools — and the young Kansans they educate — is at stake.” “The Kansas State Board of Education is often ignored by voters. There are exceptions. Most Kansans can remember two decades ago, when the board’s then-conservative majority brought international embarrassment to the state by pushing a proposal to teach creationist ‘intelligent design’ theory in the state’s public schools. The measure was...
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