Tag: School choice
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Questions for Wichita school district
At a luncheon event today, leaders of USD 259, the Wichita public school district, made short presentations and took questions from the audience. I didn’t get a chance to ask a question, but here are the questions I prepared.
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Challenges for Wichita’s new school superintendent
Recently John Allison, new superintendent for USD 259, the Wichita public school district, was interviewed by the Wichita Eagle. The article reporting on the interview is at Great time to be superintendent.
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Kansas needs independent charter schools
Right now, only school districts can sponsor charter schools, and even then, only schools physically located within their boundaries. Some may be willing to give the schools the autonomy they need to be charter schools. Others, though, aren’t. So let’s give KU, K-State, education service centers, and other organizations the right to sponsor charter schools.…
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School choice would save, not cost, Kansas
As reported in my post Moving Kansas schools from monopoly to free choice, the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy has recently reported how school choice programs could give Kansas a better return on its education dollar. Here’s some additional evidence that Kansas is missing out on an opportunity.
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Moving Kansas schools from monopoly to free choice
Paul Soutar of the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy has released a report that tells how Kansas could get better value for the money the state spends on K-12 education. Charter schools and school choice programs could — if not for opposition from the existing public school lobby and teachers unions — provide flexibility…
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Markets could guide Wichita school district
Reduce either the number of administrators or their salaries, and that would make more money available for other things, such as teachers. Currently the district needs to cut its budget, however, so the savings would more likely be used to meet that demand. This brings up the broader question of staffing in the Wichita public…
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The inevitability of parental choice
By Howie Rich A year ago, the nation’s largest newspaper wrote in an editorial that it was time to “move beyond vouchers” in the debate over America’s educational future. Although it did not reject any particular solution outright, the paper’s recommendation at the time was that America focus its energy and attention on less controversial…
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School choice is a civil rights issue
Al Sharpton called school reform the civil rights challenge of our time. He said that the enemy of opportunity for blacks in the U.S. was once Jim Crow; today, in a slap at the educational establishment, he said it was “Professor James Crow.” Sharpton is only partly correct. School reform is not solely a racial…
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Study of public and private school teachers reveals sharp differences
Last week the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice published research that examines how teachers feel about their jobs. In particular, the study compared how public school teachers and private school teachers viewed their jobs and working conditions.
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Kansas, once home to education equality, now lags in freedom
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…
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Kansas City charter school succeeds in urban environment
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.
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Articles of Interest
Kansas voting, charter schools and voucher scholarships, taxes, federal budget.