Tag: Education
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Obama Deserves a Scarlet “H” for Hypocrisy
At the Goldwater Institute, Clint Bolick exposes Barack Obama as another in a long line of politicians that deny school choice to the masses, but exercise it themselves: During the campaign, Obama stated that school choice doesn’t work. If he believes that, why not simply send the girls to whatever school the District of Columbia…
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Some Wichita Teachers Can’t Win Gracefully
Helen Cochran, who was the spokesperson for a group that opposed the recent Wichita school bond, received a few email and telephone messages as part of the campaign that were a little over the top. In one set of messages, a Wichita High School East English teacher (we’ll call him “Kurt”) carried on the legacy…
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Obama’s Education Transformation
At one time it seemed like Barack Obama might be an education reformer. He was actually booed when speaking before the National Education Association for his support of merit pay for teachers. But after observing Obama’s recent actions, Liam Julian, writing in the National Review Online piece Hoping for Change in Education? comes to this…
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Public Charter Schools Help Students and Save Tax Dollars
This press release spotlights the fact that charter schools operate much more efficiently than to public schools. Kansas could save money and increase parent satisfaction if our state had more charter schools. The education establishment in Kansas — the teachers unions, administrators, and school boards — are happy with as few charter schools as possible,…
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Wichita student writing makes me wonder
A comment left to one of my videos on YouTube reads exactly like this: no we need the bond issue because hes not in school and some schools do not have things that good like rich schools and they need to vote yes and plus it would give us a good sports things and more…
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Let Parents Choose. School Choice Works.
The Alliance For School Choice has a new campaign called “School Choice Works.” The website supporting this effort is at www.letparentschoose.org. If you care about the future of education in Kansas, I urge you to sign up to join this effort. You’ll receive some useful things from them, including a free School Choice Works bumper…
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Wichita school bond won’t fix this
Wichita school employees and students are happy that the bond issue passed. As Wichitans watch new facilities being built — and as we start to pay for them — we need to remember that there are some things that this spending isn’t capable of fixing.
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Charter Schools on the Rise in Kansas City, But Not in Wichita
Parents in Kansas City, Missouri are making widespread use of an educational option that’s not available in Wichita. As reported in today’s Kansas City Star (Charter schools on the rise in KC), about 23 percent of Kansas City schoolchildren attend charter schools.
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Wichita test scores largely mirror Kansas
Officials at USD 259, the Wichita school district, and school bond issue supporters are quick to point out that the Wichita schools have an 11-year record of rising test scores. That’s a good thing, as long as the tests are reliable and valid measures of student learning and achievement.
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Wichita School Superintendent Martin Libhart: What’s Wrong With “Government Schools?”
In a recent email from Wichita School Interim Superintendent Martin Libhart to Wichita school employees, he took issue with those who, using his words, “openly refer to public education as ‘government schools.’” It seems as though Mr. Libhart regards the term “government schools” as derogatory. Or at least as something that should be used only…
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Documentary Suggests Alternatives To Public School Orthodoxy
By Jim Erickson. Reprinted by permission of East Wichita News. It?s called Flunked, and this documentary, narrated by Joe Mantegna, is a shopping list of successful ideas to improve our schools. Those interested in the school bond issue and education in general might want to catch this movie at The Orpheum on October 8. Though…
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Charter Schools Are Mostly Okay Despite Misconceptions
A recent Wichita Eagle Editorial Blog post mentioned charter schools in Arizona. A comment writer wrote “Arizona found out, ‘Charter schools tend to be fly by night’ schools operated by entrepreneurs looking for new profit centers at the giant expense of the public school system.”