Happy Thanksgiving! We take this time to give thanks to all those who have worked to protect public education in Kansas. Thank you to the over 15,000 of you who follow us on Facebook and Twitter and especially those who like, comment, share and retweet our information. Thank you to all the teachers, staff, administrators and school board members who work to give our children the education they need. Thank you to the parents and other community members who volunteer their time and energy to support our schools and the children they serve. Thank you to Kansans who...
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New Orleans shows perils of school choice
New Orleans has been portrayed as a school choice success story by many anti-public education voices, including some in Kansas. This piece from the New Orleans Tribune is informative. “This brings us to the bogus notion of school ‘choice’ that reformers have held up as a blessing for parents and students, when, in fact, the only entities that exercise any real choice in admissions have been the charter schools—not parents, not students. “Unelected boards not bound to parents or taxpayers determining school policies and deciding how money is spent. “Many parents even uncertain as to who they could...
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Leave a Comment Legislators err in consideration of constitutional amendment
Dear Rep. Ryckman, Sen. Wagle, Sen. Denning and others, the problem is not the Kansas constitution, and the problem is not the Kansas courts. You have had options for dealing with our school funding situation. You didn’t have to pass a disastrous tax plan, which many told you would blow a hole in our state’s budget. You did not have to sit through the two years of the block grant without addressing our new school funding formula, which is now causing you to deal with the latest court decision as you enter the 2018 election year. You did...
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Leave a Comment Denning and Ryckman voice support for reviewing constitutional amendment
We oppose a constitutional amendment to change the language requiring the legislature to make suitable provision for the funding of public schools. We note that a previous effort to amend the constitution failed in 2016, and that Kansans voted to retain the supreme court justices on the ballot in the 2016 election, which makes Sen. Denning’s statement ring hollow. We would prefer Johnson County’s Rep. Ryckman and Sen. Denning focus on getting adequate resources to Kansas school children instead of wasting time and energy on constitutional amendments. “In a letter sent to legislative leaders, Ryckman said one purpose...
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