Kansas National Education Association
Why does America tolerate this? In his commentary Dumbest Generation Getting Dumber, Walter E. Williams reports on some new research about our public schools: McKinsey & Company, in releasing its report "The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools" (April 2009) said, "Several other facts paint a worrisome picture. First, the longer American children are in school, the worse they perform compared to their international peers. In recent cross-country comparisons of fourth grade reading, math, and science, US students scored in the top quarter or top half of advanced nations. By age 15 these rankings drop to the…
Here's some material from "Under the Dome Today" for May 29, 2009. This is a publication of the Kansas National Education Association (KNEA, the teachers union). According to press reports, Schools for Fair Funding -- the Montoy school lawsuit finance districts -- is examining the possibility of re-opening the school finance lawsuit because of the cuts to education that were made by the 2009 legislature. John Robb, one of the two attorneys who represented the original group of districts in the suit, said, "The $755 million was almost like a court-ordered settlement, and now the Legislature is going backwards." While…
Speaking at at the regular weekly meeting of the Wichita Pachyderm Club on May 22, 2009, Kansas House of Representatives member Jason Watkins addressed the Kansas budget, Kansas Republicans, and school spending. Watkins represents House district 105, which includes parts of west and northwest Wichita. He is Vice-Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, which was the center of some fast-paced legislative action this year as it worked on the Kansas budget. Regarding the budget during the past legislative session, which ended in May: Watkins felt there was an opportunity for reform that the legislature should have taken advantage of. The…
At one time Kansas played a leading role in education equality, as Topeka was home to the school that produced the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision by the United States Supreme Court. Today, however, Kansas lags in educational freedom and choice. The public school lobby in Kansas does everything it can to stomp out any spark of educational freedom and choice in Kansas. The two organizations at the forefront of this effort -- the Kansas National Education Association (KNEA, the teachers union) and the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB) -- expend huge amounts of energy and money…
USD 259, the Wichita public school district, doesn't want them. The Kansas National Education Association (KNEA) -- the teachers union -- doesn't want them either. But where they're able to exist, charter schools usually do a good job. They often excel. And where they don't do a good job, they usually go out of business. 200 miles from Wichita, in Kansas City, Missouri, a charter school is doing a great job with urban children. Watch the following video about KIPP Endeavor Academy.
Today's edition of Under the Dome Today contains a call for action. This newsletter is the update of legislative action provided by KNEA, the Kansas National Education Association. For those of you who might think that an organization with such a lofty name is dedicated to the betterment of the education of Kansas schoolchildren, I must remind you that KNEA is the teachers union. Sorry about that. KNEA's call for action is this: "It is critical now that you contact your Representative -- especially Republicans. Let them know that cuts of 4.75 per cent will cause serious damage to student…
Despite the fact that Kansas school spending has been increasing rapidly in recent years, and despite the fact that K-12 education has been spared the large cuts that most other state agencies are facing, it's still okay to whine. That's the attitude of KNEA (the Kansas National Education Association, the teachers union) expressed in the late edition of Under the Dome Today. I wish I knew who wrote these flowery dispatches. This issue starts with an extended quotation from Dante's Inferno, something I may (or may not) have read in college. After its excursion into Medieval allegory, this edition describes…
Reading the Kansas National Education Association's -- that's the teachers union, also known as KNEA -- report Under the Dome is becoming an exercise in decoding doublespeak. Today's issue, which you can read by clicking on Under the Dome Today for April 23, 2009, contains some 417 words that hope for something to happen, without using the words that describe the thing hoped for. Instead, today's issue hopes for the Kansas legislature to implement "revenue solutions." Here's a little sample: The Senate Ways and Means Committee meeting today took a different approach. They reviewed a laundry list of possible revenue…
The Kansas National Education Association -- that's the teachers union -- shows again that it has little respect for Kansas taxpayers. The issue of Under the Dome for April 17, 2009 reveals this organization's appetite for tax revenue is large, and they're always on the prowl for more. After last week's bad news about Kansas revenues, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius reminded legislators they had "left a significant amount of money on the table by not considering revenue adjustments that she had proposed in her budgets." Just look at the perspective of Sebelius and the KNEA. They can't bring themselves to…
The public education spending lobby in Kansas is always looking for more tax dollars. A recent edition of the Kansas National Education Association newsletter Under the Dome for March 30, 2009 lays out the education spending lobby's plans. This group is fearful that an upcoming meeting of the consensus revenue group may produce bad news for Kansas revenue. It's thought that the state may need to reduce spending or increase taxes. Spending, according to this newsletter, has "already been cut to the bone." So the KNEA proposes "adjustments to the revenue stream" as follows: Reject all new tax cuts. Freeze…