We remain wary that voucher bills will still find their way into committees and onto chamber floors this session and urge you stay vigilant and continuing to educate yourselve and others on how harmful they are. As 2024 elections approach, also please understand that the reason we don’t have the ESA in Kansas yet is that we have a governor who understands how bad they are, and enough legislators to block a veto override even though there is a Republican supermajority. If we lose some of the pro-public education legislators in 2024, that could change in the 2025...
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Kansas legislative leaders have chosen course of maximum confrontation, extremism
Please read this whole editorial to understand what we’re up against and what we could have if we had different people in charge of the legislature. “This month, the Kansas Chamber, the main representative of Koch interests and a major player in Kansas politics, released its legislative priorities — its marching orders to leadership — and it was more of the same: a flat tax; opposition to Medicaid expansion; and public money for unaccredited, unregulated, private, religious and home schools. “To be clear, these policies are proven failures. To take them in order: The flat tax is another...
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Leave a Comment Kansas Education Commissioner sets record straight on Kansas test scores
“There would be some in the state of Kansas that say over and over that kids in Level 2 are failing. That discussion needs to cease today.” Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson at the October 2022 State Board of Education meeting. We are tired of people claiming Level 2 students are failing. They’ve been corrected multiple times, but they won’t stop saying it. Now that we have data from multiple years of testing, we have substantial evidence that Level 2 students are going on to college and achieving post-secondary success. Published on Facebook on Jan. 14th, 2024....
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Leave a Comment Kansas legislators see Arizona vouchers as model; however, Arizona’s vouchers helping the wealthy and widening educational gaps
Multiple Kansas legislators view Arizona’s ESA as a model. It is a cautionary tale. ESAs do not help poor kids. They are new tax subsidies for the well-off. “My analysis of the data from the program’s second year demonstrates a troubling pattern: the uptake of ESA vouchers is significantly higher in affluent districts, even as they also boast a high percentage of top-rated public schools. For example, in Cave Creek, an estimated 13% of children are now using vouchers, along with 12% of those in Scottsdale and 10% in Catalina Foothills. Rather than democratizing education, Arizona’s school vouchers...
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