In late September, the Kansas Republican Party passed a resolution calling for an end to Social Emotional Learning (SEL). We heard that multiple people were planning to offer public comments at today’s State Board of Education meeting in Topeka, so our own Judith Deedy spoke to encourage the board to continue to support SEL. We believe SEL benefits our students. It is unfortunate that the Republican party is engaging in such a misguided effort. There was a significant amount of misinformation and confusion about what SEL is and isn’t contained in both the resolution and in the comments...
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School board elections results show that Kansans reject extremism and support public education
Before we wrap today, I would like to note that far-right conservative candidates appear to have fallen short in Johnson County and Baldwin City school board races. According to the Game on for Kansas Schools group, ‘It was a very good election (though not perfect) for traditional candidates and a very bad election for extremists across the state.’ “Can we now finally put to rest the ridiculous idea that a vast majority of Kansans are clamoring for drastic changes to their public schools? “Far-right ideologues see public education as a Trojan Horse to inject their poisonous ideas into...
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Leave a Comment Resilience and improvement in Kansas public schools, despite underfunded years
We have just gone through years of underfunding our schools, lengthy court cases and political battles to finally get adequate and equitable funding, and we have recently experienced the worst disruption to education in a century — the COVID pandemic. “And here is how we have emerged from these significant obstacles: Our high school graduation rate is the highest it has ever been, including subgroups. Now, our critics say, “Well, you’re graduating them, but they aren’t prepared for working or college.” But that’s just not true because the percentage of students who are going on to get postsecondary...
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Leave a Comment Economist makes the argument against vouchers
Another study showing how the free market is not appropriate for education, especially for the disadvantaged kids they claim it will help. “Harris explains how schools are ill-suited for a free market approach, and so, when looking at current school choice policy he finds, ‘the current direction of policy is off-track and apparently inconsistent with the main criteria on which we evaluate education policy and even with the values that voucher advocates themselves profess.’ “Harris points out that not only are educational free markets inefficient and marked by the failures noted above, but that this inefficiency also leads...
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