Blog

We know there are political forces in Kansas that want to implement ALEC “free-market” type changes to Kansas education, including expansion of vouchers, “education spending accounts” and charters, and we continue to closely monitor states where these changes have been implemented. We see over and over again that they have failed. Here’s a new story out of Michigan. “A year ago, the Free Press published an eight-day series that documented the tragic missed opportunities of Michigan’s charter experiment. Charter schools began with the promise that privately operated public schools would provide quality options for parents in cities where...

“That’s the problem school districts face. It’s pretty easy for legislators to predict how much the state will spend on K-12 education. All they have to do is set an arbitrary amount and say that’s all the schools are getting. It’s a lot harder for local districts to figure out how they are going to serve hundreds — or maybe thousands in some larger districts — of additional students without any additional state support. “Legislators have put the block grant funding system in place for two years, during which they say they will put together a new school...