Blog

 We’re still watching third/first grade retention. Brownback is not happy with some of the changes we like. We believe if legislative leaders are going to insist on importing education bills from Florida, the least we can do is look at them carefully and change them in a way that makes sense for Kansas. We don’t want to follow unproven “reform” models just because KPI, ALEC, or Jeb Bush’s FEE say we should. As Sen. Kelly said, “We need to let facts get in our way here.” http://cjonline.com/news/state/2013-03-27/brownback-not-thrilled-rewrite-reading-reform...

 The reading retention bill passed the Senate today 30-10. We disagree with the bill in principle and believe that these decisions should be left to parents, teachers, principals and the Kansas Board of Education. That being said, the Senate removed many of the worst aspects of the bill as described in our post yesterday, and given that it was part of Brownback’s State of the State, passage of something was pretty well assured. From here the bill will go to conference committee where we will try to watch what happens to it. We also have to wonder how...

Keep the emails coming on H Sub SB22 (corporate tax credit scholarship bill). We believe the final vote will happen today, and there is pressure on some legislators to change their NO votes. In particular please thank SMSD area Rep. Bruchman for his NO vote yesterday and encourage him to vote NO again.  785-296-7644 Rep. Bruchman’s desk-let the assistant know to get the information to him, or if you can’t get through rob.bruchman@house.ks.gov....

Good news! For now the scholarship bill has been defeated after 2 hours of debate 63-56. We expect a motion to reconsider. http://cjonline.com/news/2013-03-25/house-rejects-private-school-donation-credit-legislation#.UVDFQ_fTrSM.twitter...