Last week, Margaret Raymond, a researcher for CREDO at the Hoover Institution (a pro-free-market think tank) who is married to Eric Hanushek (who testified for the state in the Gannon case) admitted what many of us have understood for years, which is that the free market philosophy and choice do not work in public education. “This is one of the big insights for me. I actually am kind of a pro-market kinda girl. But it doesn’t seem to work in a choice environment for education. I’ve studied competitive markets for much of my career. That’s my academic focus...
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Jan Ressenger reports Pandora’s box of school privatization
Pandora’s box opened a bit wider in Kansas with last session’s passage of the corporate tax credit scholarship. Kansans should make sure it doesn’t go any further. Jan Ressenger reports on the Pandora’s box of school privatization. “These are all such nice ideas. The problem, however, in Ohio and Michigan and many other states is that our politics is awash in money. The owners of the for-profits, the on-line charter schools, the shady Charter Management Organizations and other proponents of school privatization including major philanthropists are spending buckets of money to influence the politicians who would have to...
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Leave a Comment K-12 Performance and Efficiency Committee recommends commission to study Rose standards
From our friends at Educate Lawrence, “The Kansas Supreme Court established the ‘Rose capacities’ as the standard for evaluating adequate funding of our public schools and sent the judgment on adequacy of school funding back to a three-judge panel. The Rose standard includes measurements of student’s knowledge of civics, economics, fine arts, and possessing the communication skills necessary for entering college or the workforce. The K-12 Student Performance and Efficiency Committee discussed various legislative bills but could only come to agreement on recommending a new study commission to investigate the Rose standard. If passed by the legislature, this...
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Leave a Comment KASB position paper on cash balances
KASB has done a position paper on districts’ cash balances, which are the subject of one of the K-12 Performance and Efficiency Commission’s proposed bills to be discussed Monday. We particularly understand that districts can’t deficit spend, and in the past 7 years, many have been concerned about mid-year budget cuts during the recession and now that the impact of the tax cuts are being felt and there is talk about “structural reforms” to school funding. http://www.kasb.org/assets/Advocacy/Webinars/14/SchoolDistrictCashBalances1214.pdf...
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