Blog

Rep. Melcher scheduled a 2 hour promotional session with the joint education committees yesterday for a charter school based out of Arizona. Did you know that the Carpe Diem charter district and school administrative costs are DOUBLE that of Kansas public schools – 9% charter v 4% to 5% Kansas public schools? 33% of their staff are administrators/CEOs (see Carpe Diem’s own report). Did you know that Rep. Melcher’s own school districts already implement this innovative blended learning model? (http://www.kansascity.com/2014/02/12/4819785/the-flip-side-of-learning-new.html) Did you know that the charter school has no empirically valid data on student outcomes? CEO/Founder Rick Ogston compares...

The House Ed Committee held a hearing on the corporate tax credit scholarship bill (which was defeated last year). This is another ALEC bill and is a voucher bill in disguise. It allows corporations to donate money to “scholarship granting organizations” which is then given to private (often religious) schools as “scholarships” for low-income students (up to almost double the federal poverty income level). The corporations then get a 70% tax credit for their donations, further reducing revenues to the State General Fund, from which public schools are funded. There are no oversight provisions for the private schools...