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Budget cuts are real in Galena, Baxter Springs and elsewhere

“Statewide, other school superintendents say they have been forced to make choices similar to those in Galena and Baxter Springs. Classrooms have become more crowded, and staffs have been trimmed. Districts across the state have dropped after-school programs and increased fees.” Budget cuts are real. http://www.joplinglobe.com/topstories/x748030440/Kansas-educators-legislators-await-court-s-school-funding-ruling...
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Warning on vouchers from Ohio

The next time you hear we need vouchers (or corporate tax credit “scholarships”) to give choice to poor children, think of this warning from Ohio. “Now that Ohio’s sending more than $1 billion this year to privately run Charter Schools and Private Schools through Vouchers, it is important to examine the impact of those decisions made in Columbus have on the 92% of Ohio’s kids that do not attend Charters or Vouchers. The impact is profound. Like asteroid or comet profound.” http://10thperiod.blogspot.com/2014/01/ohios-school-choice-funding-scheme.html?m=0...
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Outside the averages, some very special students

When people talk about education spending, they often seem to forget how many children with special needs there are in our school districts. Here’s a piece that explains what’s missing when people focus on averages or think that our student body is the same as it was in the past.http://heimkasb.blogspot.com/2014/02/outside-averages-some-very-special.html...
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Warning from Indiana on vouchers

The next time you hear we need vouchers (or corporate tax credit “scholarships”) to give choice to poor children, think of this warning from Indiana. “Students using vouchers to attend private schools represent less than 2 percent of Indiana’s K-12 students, yet the legislature concentrates on this small group at the expense of the vast majority of public school students. It is as if our policy makers have given up on public education in favor of private education, but such a strategy will never be able to address the needs of the public school students. What the report...
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