“As Lorde sings, ‘we’ll never be royals,’ feted by corporate education reformers. Nor are we teacher union pawns. We’re real parents in a real crisis. And maybe, just maybe, if politicians look us in the eye, our children and their truly public schools might get the support they so desperately need.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/13/were-real-parents-in-a-real-crisis/ This piece from a parent advocate in Boston shows us where Kansas is heading and echoes our sentiments. We do not oppose charters. Charters are allowed in Kansas, but where they are promoted and not held to the same financial and academic accountability and enrollment standards as...
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JoCo legislators voting for education finance bill received KS Chamber and Koch funding
In the recent vote on the education finance bill with the harmful policy provisions, eastern Johnson County senators and representatives voted against the bill. Central and western Johnson County legislators voted in favor of the bill. This bill’s policy pieces were part of the privatization/anti-public school agenda pushed by the Kochs and their various funded and influenced lobbying entities, ALEC, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, AFP and KPI. We’ve also included Speaker Merrick’s donation from Kansas Chamber President Mike O’Neal. Here’s a chart showing HB 2506 Johnson County aye votes and donations those legislators received from Kansas Chamber...
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Leave a Comment Education reporters and advocates take to Twitter. Join us!
If you’re not already on Twitter, we highly recommend it. The reporters covering education in Kansas share much more information than they are able to include in the stories in the newspaper or on television. You can also hear directly from legislators and education advocates. Give it a try! http://www.kcpt.org/education/kansas-educators-battle-school-finance-bill-twitter/ We are @GameOnKansas. Here are some other recommendations: @ksucats96 @Celia_LJ @BryanLowry3 @ljwrothschild @bradc25 @TomKrebs1 @duckmo73 @JohnHeim67 @thatguyinhutch @andymarso @APjdhanna @TimVCarpenter...
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Leave a Comment Be wary of funded legislators and misleading postcards
This piece explains two things we have come to understand: (1) AFP’s financial support of legislators and ability to withdraw that support and fund a primary opponent creates a system in which many legislators feel they need to promote the AFP/ALEC agenda rather than listen to constituents back home; and (2) before the August and November elections postcards and ads will appear that abuse the phrase “supports public schools” and/or contain outright falsehoods. “Take last week’s battle over school funding. The House passed a clean bill, while the Senate loaded its version with policies straight from those groups’ legislative...
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