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“Gov. Sam Brownback and fellow ultraconservatives control the executive and legislative branches, yet Brownback wants the judicial branch as well, to eliminate any possible resistance to his far-right ideological agenda. “Brownback’s recent tactics included threatening to defund the state judiciary in the event of a court ruling against a law the governor favored — one that removed Kansas Supreme Court authority to set district court budgets and appoint local chief judges. “Other ideas from the ultraconservative camp involve scrapping the state’s current merit-based system of selecting justices, lowering retirement ages for judges, and partisan elections for judges. “Frustrated...

Here’s information on the firm Kansas legislators have hired to look for more “efficiency” in Kansas, including Kansas public education. We are wary that we will see cuts rather than efficiencies. “A & M had a similar charge in 2003 when it was hired to take over management of the troubled St. Louis public school district, which had been shedding population for the previous 40 years and was running financial deficits in the range of $60 million to $70 million a year… “A former CEO of Brooks Brothers, a clothing retailer, Roberti had no background in managing a...

Well said, Manhattan School Board member Aaron Estabrook. “Public Education is not a partisan issue! As a Board we represent all people in a non-partisan way. I have been told by many Republican legislators that the extremism which has taken root in Topeka is determined to dismantle Public Education in Kansas. For many key members of the Extremist Caucus in the Brownback Legislature, the goal is to end Public School as we know it and replace it with their version of private school. This has played out in other states and it has failed horribly. Kansas has the...

Kansans understand that moving school board elections to the fall, which the legislature voted to do last session, is related to the problem described in this article, right? Supportive school boards are an obstacle to the privatization of public education. Moving elections from the spring, when more moderate voters turn out in higher percentages, to the fall, with primaries in August (where we generally see a higher turnout of extremists) is one way to try to change the makeup of school boards. An influx of out of state money supporting challengers with a privatization agenda is another way....