Category: Wichita and Kansas schools
-
Wichita Eagle’s Richard Crowson: Cartoonist for the Teachers Union
In 2006, Wichita Eagle editorial Cartoonist Richard Crowson received an award from the Kansas teachers union. He’s a “friend of education.” Really. I wonder if Crowson realizes the harm that teachers unions cause? I wonder if he know that teachers unions try to block every attempt at meaningful reform?
-
Is Richard Crowson Cartooning For or Against the Wichita School Bond Issue?
A recent Richard Crowson cartoon drums up support for a proposed bond issue for USD 259, the Wichita school district, by noting the cost is only 11 cents a day. And, he notes, test scores are up in many schools. I don’t know if this is an argument for or against the bond issue. If…
-
Mark McCormick’s Wichita School Bond Bias
Writing from Scottsdale, Arizona Today’s Mark McCormick column in the Wichita Eagle (Opponents of school bond skip specifics) provides an example of this columnist’s bias, and how this bias leads to his rapidly losing credibility among Wichitans. Bias is okay for a columnist. Everyone is entitled to a point of view. After reading a few…
-
Wichita School Safe Rooms: At No Cost?
Writing from Scottsdale, Arizona At the September 8, 2008 meeting of the board of USD 259, the Wichita public school district, safe rooms were on the agenda. A few things I learned: It appears that it was by serendipity that the district discovered that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would help pay for the…
-
Ohio School Choice Improves Public Schools
The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice has produced the report Promising Start — An Empirical Analysis of How EdChoice Vouchers Affect Ohio Public Schools, which finds these results: This study finds that the EdChoice program produced academic improvements in voucher-eligible public schools. … This study adds to a large body of empirical research that consistently…
-
Wichita School District: TIF Action Tests Accountability and Ethics
The real problem with this TIF district, however, is the conduct of the applicant, who is a member of this board. At a meeting of the Wichita City Council, Reverend Harding told the council that he had informed his fellow school board members of what he was doing. But two members of this board have…
-
Testimony before the USD 259 Wichita Public School board regarding the Ken Mar TIF
From John Todd. President Rogers, School Board Members, and Superintendent Libhart, I thank you for this opportunity to speak. My name is John Todd. I live at 1559 Payne in Wichita, Kansas, and I am opposed to the Ken Mar shopping center TIF that was created by the City of Wichita on August 12, 2008,…
-
Wichita School Bond Issue Cartoons are Funny
Helen Cochran of Citizens for Better Education has released a political cartoon whose topic is the Wichita school bond issue. She’s told me this is the first of a series. They’ll appear in the Wichita Eagle each Monday, and on CBE’s website right after that. Click here to go to CBE’s website and see the…
-
Mark McCormick’s Wichita School Bond Challenge: The Inside Story
Recently Wichita Eagle columnist Mark McCormick challenged Helen Cochran, spokesperson for Citizens for Better Education, a citizen group opposed to the proposed Wichita school bond issue, to answer a few questions. In Sunday’s column he presented Cochran’s answers. I spoke to Ms. Cochran and exchanged a few email messages, and I asked her a few…
-
NAACP Hosts Wichita School Bond Issue Mini-debate
I was invited by Kevin Myles, president of the Wichita Branch of the NAACP, to participate in a community mini-debate series about the proposed Wichita school bond issue. Lynn Rogers, president of the Wichita school board, also participated. You can read the questions and answers in the post What YOU need to know about the…
-
George Fahnestock’s Wichita school bond issue invitation!!!
In an email message titled “An invitation to hear the Story, the Strategy, and the Situation!!!” Wichita school bond issue celebrity spokesperson George Fahnestock invites a select group of Wichitans to learn about the proposed bond issue. (Isn’t it annoying when the senders of email messages seek to raise the importance and urgency of their…
-
Kansas National Education Association candidate questions
After reading them, it became clear to me that the questions are formulated to advance the interests of the teachers union and others wrapped up in — and profiting from — the public school bureaucracy and its monopoly on the use of state education funds. The questions contain many statements expressing support for more taxing…