“So how did the charlatans and cranks end up dictating policy in Kansas, and to a more limited extent in other states? Follow the money. For the Brownback tax cuts didn’t emerge out of thin air. They closely followed a blueprint laid out by the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, which has also supported a series of economic studies purporting to show that tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy will promote rapid economic growth. The studies are embarrassingly bad, and the council’s Board of Scholars — which includes both Mr. Laffer and Stephen Moore of the...
Read more
Leave a Comment Blog
Sun Sentinel finds mismanagement, inadequate academics in Florida charters
Earlier this week we posted about a multi-article expose on charter schools in Michigan in the Detroit Free Press. Now the Sun Sentinel in Florida is exposing charter exploitation there including financial mismanagement and insufficient academic programs. We note that Florida is often held up as a model for education “reform” including massive expansion of charter schools. This is no model for Kansas. http://interactive.sun-sentinel.com/charter-schools-unsupervised/...
Read more
Leave a Comment Kansans will protect hometown schools
“The audacity of Merrick continually attacking Kansas teachers, along with Gov. Sam Brownback’s ‘experiment’ that has Kansas in dire financial straits, has gotten the attention of Kansans from Stilwell to Parker and from Liberal to Leavenworth. Kansans know they have good public schools and that good Kansas teachers are, in many instances, the bedrock of their Kansas communities. Kansans will protect their hometown schools and communities from ruin by showing up at the polls and defending their state’s values.” Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/06/26/3526350/letters-to-the-editor-on-red-shirts.html#storylink=cpy...
Read more
Leave a Comment Email gives inside look, legislature being bullied by outside interests
It’s time to make some changes, Kansas. “Thanks to one upset lawmaker, Kansans got a rare look this week at the inner workings of Topeka – and the tenuous relationship between lawmakers and high-dollar lobbyists. . . .Wind energy was one issue pushed by lobbyists and think tanks, but it certainly wasn’t the only one. Education, legal reform, tax policy and a variety of other issues all have drawn the interest of groups like the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Prosperity. And on each of those issues, those groups ensure lawmakers know how they’re expected to...
Read more
Leave a Comment