The Trump administration, on almost no notice, is witholding billions of dollars of Congressionally appropriated funds from public schools. This is wrong on so many levels. School districts can’t just decide to raise prices and contracts to provide services have likely already been signed. This is cruel politics and is unacceptable. “The federal government is withholding more than $42 million from Kansas schools that would pay for professional development for educators, programs for improving student achievement, after-school learning programs and migrant education. “Deputy Education Commissioner Frank Harwood on Tuesday detailed how Kansas would be affected by the Trump’s...
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Steven Becker explains why we shouldn’t elect Supreme Court Justices
We miss having Steven Becker in the legislature. Here he explains why we shouldn’t elect Supreme Court Justices. “This session, the Kansas Legislature voted to send Senate Concurrent Resolution 1611 to voters. This proposed constitutional amendment creates the direct partisan political election of Kansas Supreme Court justices. Such elections would be the death knell of an independent judiciary…The majority of the Legislature sadly confuses the court of law with the court of public opinion. “Partisan election of judges conflicts with the very essence of the role of the judiciary. A judge has no constituency. A judge must not...
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Leave a Comment Private schools choose students
Private schools are not free and open to all and therefore shouldn’t receive public funds. “In a major victory for public school students, a state district court has ruled that Utah’s universal private school voucher program is unconstitutional…On April 18, 2025, a Utah district court judge struck down the voucher program ruling that the legislature does not have the power to create schools outside the public school system, and therefore any publicly funded education program created by the legislature must comply with all constitutional requirements pertaining to public schools, including that they be free and open to all...
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Leave a Comment Update on State Assessments
What is Proficiency? The Kansas Assessment cut scores are being reset to align with changes to the state education standards. As public school parents and grassroots public education advocates committed to helping patrons stay informed about policies and practices that impact the quality of and access to public education for Kansas school-age youth, we share our perspective regarding efforts to set the new cut scores for the next decade. We hope that the cut scores are significantly changed and that decisionmakers will consider the framework of Response to Intervention (RTI) and Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) as a...
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