Blog

So when someone like Kansas Governor Sam Brownback crows ‘Look out Texas. Here comes Kansas!’ it might be he didn’t read the brochure before planning this particular trip.” http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2013/02/anti-tax_credo_keeps_texas_kid.php  This article takes a look at why people who care about public schools don’t want Kansas to be like Texas....

“To be blunt, money does matter. Schools and districts with more money clearly have greater ability to provide higher-quality, broader, and deeper educational opportunities to the children they serve. Furthermore, in the absence of money, or in the aftermath of deep cuts to existing school funding, schools are unable to do many of the things they need to do in order to maintain quality educational opportunities.” Bruce Baker in Revisiting that Age-Old Question: Does Money Matter in Education? http://www.shankerinstitute.org/images/doesmoneymatter_final.pdf...

 Our governor wants to proceed with third grade retention for non-proficient readers, despite evidence that holding kids back often does more harm than good, as part of an initiative to raise fourth grade reading scores, and he’s going to fund it by cutting . . . early childhood education programs. Here’s a new entry in the “we can’t make this stuff up” file. This is another Florida Reform initiative we’d like them to keep in Florida. http://www.khi.org/news/2013/feb/04/brownback-reading-initiative-questioned-education/#continued...

“We are going to try to cover your back . . . [i]t is just the beginning of a lot of tough votes.” House Speaker Pro Tem Peggy Mast urging freshman legislators to vote with them on the so-called Payroll Protection Act. But aren’t they supposed to be accountable to their constituents? Aren’t they supposed to be covering our backs? Which other tough votes do you think they’re talking about (maybe a couple of consitutional amendments)? Something is terribly amiss when our legislators are being told, vote the party line and we’ll try to protect you from “them”...