Voice For Liberty

Tag: Wichita and Kansas schools

  • Kansas ranks low in policies on teacher quality

    States are the primary drivers of teacher policy, said Sandi Jacobs, and the states, particularly Kansas, are not doing a good job promoting teacher quality.

    Audio recording: Sandi Jacobs speaking in Wichita, Kansas.
    [powerpress url=”http://wichitaliberty.org/audio/sandi-jacobs-kansas-policy-institute-2010-12-09.mp3″]

    Jacobs is Vice President of National Council for Teacher Quality. She appeared in Wichita at an event sponsored by the Kansas Policy Institute. NCTA is a research and advocacy group that promotes accountability and transparency of the institutions that affect teacher quality.

    While states play the largest role in formulating teacher policy, other actors are local school districts, teachers unions, and the education schools that train teachers. Until last year when Race to the Top money became available from the federal government, it didn’t play a significant role. Kansas did not make it past the first round of Race to the Top evaluations.

    Jacobs said that there is strong consensus that of the factors under control of schools, teacher quality has the greatest impact on student success. And recently there has been a shift in how we consider teacher quality, moving from certifications and past education to effectiveness and results in the classroom.

    Jacobs presented research that shows how teacher quality can make a large difference in how much students learn in just a period of three years. In the example she illustrated, third graders who had teachers in the top 20 percent of effectiveness for the next three years went from the 50th percentile in performance to the 90th. For students with teachers in the lowest 20 percent for the same period, their performance dropped from the 50th percentile to the 37th percentile. This is a “huge achievement gap,” she said.

    Jacobs said that states already have many policies regarding teachers, but they are not the right policies. The NCTQ gives an average grade of “D” to the states for their policies regarding teachers. Kansas is below average, earning a grade of “D-.”

    Among the policy areas regarding teacher effectiveness and quality, states fare worst in identifying effective teachers. Further, the methods that statues use to evaluate teachers are not indicative of teacher effectiveness in the classroom. Only ten states “require evidence of effectiveness to be the preponderant criterion for teacher evaluation.” Kansas policy says that school districts “should” include a measure of teacher effectiveness in their evaluations. But that is as far as Kansas policy goes, Jacobs said. Kansas, like many states, does not require classroom observation in teacher evaluation.

    If student data is to be an important factor in teacher evaluation, states must create data systems that match students and their test scores with teachers. Kansas has the building blocks in place, Jacobs said, but the system needs more work before this matching can be done.

    Value-added data has been in the news recently. This refers to the ability to measure the impact of teachers on student achievement. In value-added methodology, the specific students taught by a teacher are tracked so that teachers may be evaluated by the achievement of their own students, not by broad measures. “Value-added methodology is very fair to teachers. It looks at their impact on their students,” Jacobs told the audience.

    Jacobs said that twelve states use value-added data in teacher evaluations. Kansas does not.

    The frequency of teacher evaluation is important, too. Kansas requires multiple evaluations for new teachers, which Jacobs said is a wise policy, even though the evaluation process may not be meaningful. For teacher who have gained tenure, they are evaluated once a year in their first two years after gaining tenure. After that, evaluations are required once every three years, which Jacobs said does not make sense, and should be addressed.

    The process of granting tenure — permanent employment status, after which is is very difficult to dismiss a teacher — is almost automatic in most states, Jacobs said. She added: “We’re not awarding it based on anything too meaningful, and we’re awarding it very quickly.” In Kansas, as in most states, teachers earn tenure after three years.

    Jacobs said that after three years, school districts will have probably two years’ of data on a teacher, which she said is not enough. She recommended a probationary period of five years before evaluating a teacher for tenure.

    For professional licensure, which is awarded by states, many states require no evidence of effectiveness. Kansas requires a performance assessment. Jacobs had no data for Kansas, but on other states that have such as assessment, the passing rate is generally above 98 percent. “So if 98 percent of people are coming through your gate, well then you don’t have a gate. Why are you even giving that assessment?”

    The policy area in which Kansas scored lowest was in exiting, or firing, ineffective teachers. Kansas labor law has special language just for teachers, Jacobs said, and this language makes it very difficult to dismiss ineffective teachers. Teachers are also allowed multiple appeals. The second appeal is made in the court system, which changes the matter from an educational issue to a procedural issue.

    Kansas is also weak in alternate certification, a process where people may become teachers without going through the traditional route through the education colleges. Kansas schools may hire such teachers only if they certify that no traditionally-prepared teacher is available. Jacobs said that research shows that alternatively-certified teachers perform well.

    Retaining effective teachers is important, Jacobs said, and compensation is an important factor in this regard. A problem is that teachers are treated interchangeably, she said, because school districts pay teachers based on years of experience and by degrees earned, not by effectiveness. Furthermore, there is strong consensus of evidence that advanced degrees do not make teachers any more effective in the classroom. It’s a “double premium” that districts pay, however, as many will pay teachers to earn a higher degree, and then pay them a higher salary. But this practice does not increase student leaning.

    Kansas does not have a state teacher salary schedule. Instead, districts create their own salary schedules. But Jacobs said the state needs to send the message to districts that salary schedules based on years of experience and advanced degrees “don’t make sense, aren’t efficient, and are counterproductive to retaining our most effective teachers.”

    I asked Jacobs about the relative importance of class size as compared to teacher effectiveness. Jacobs said that research shows that class size makes a difference for very young children (below third grade), when class size can be reduced to 11 or 12 students. For everyone else, there is no evidence that class size makes a difference. Additionally, reducing class size requires that more teachers be hired. When California tried class size reduction, the thousands of additional teachers hired were not of high quality, and student achievement fell.

    Additional coverage of Jacob’s lecture is in the Wichita Business Journal at Teacher council: Improving quality of educators increases student achievement and the Wichita Eagle at Advocate touts education reform.

  • Kansas school spending: the charts

    Spending figures available at the Kansas State Department of Education indicate that spending was down for the 2010 school year. It was down both in terms of total dollars spent and spending per student.

    Notice that spending has declined for only one year. This fact is in sharp contrast to the rhetoric of Kansas school spending advocates.

    Kansas school spending, per studentKansas school spending, per student.

    State aid to school districts declined by $1,018 per student, but federal aid increased by $679. After considering local aid, per-student spending was down by $330.

    While that may seem like a lot of money, the context is that school districts in Kansas spent $12,330 per student last school year. School spending advocates routinely deny this fact, as they are embarrassed to admit how much money Kansas schools receive.

    School spending advocates also use terms like “edge of a cliff” to describe the school budget “crisis.” As we can see, spending has been increasing rapidly for many years. It’s only in the past year that spending actually declined, and by a small amount at that.

    In fact, for the 2000-2001 school year, spending per student was $8,024. Nine years later, for the 2009-2010 school year, the figure is $12,330, an increase of 54 percent at a time when inflation has been very low, nonexistent in some years.

    Kansans should note that state aid per student last school year was $6,326, down from $7,344 the year before. School spending advocates are quick to point out that base state aid per pupil is only $4,012. But through the school finance formula with its adjustments and weightings, spending per pupil is much higher.

    Kansas school spending, per student, change from previous yearKansas school spending, per student, change from previous year. Only in the last year is the value negative, meaning less spending than the year before. In some years spending increased by over nine percent.

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Sunday December 5, 2010

    Wichita City Council this week. Tuesday’s city council meeting has a busy agenda. First is the Community Improvement District policy, which was deferred from November 2. I believe the major issue to be resolved is requiring signage on stores or businesses that will be charging extra sales tax. It’s possible there might be a majority on the council who want the warning signs. Developers are opposed, saying that notification in advance drives off customers. Gee, who could have known that people don’t like paying taxes? The city is proposing a web site that identifies all CIDs, but this is a weak form of consumer notification that is pretty much useless, as correctly identified by council member Lavonta Williams. … There’s an appeal of a ruling that a woman has three horses on her property when rules allow one. … Several companies are requesting industrial revenue bonds and relief from paying property taxes: Bombardier Learjet, Cessna, and Coleman. … Go Wichita Convention & Visitors Bureau will ask that its contract with the city be renewed. This is one of the organizations that has refused to fill my records requests, stating that they are not a “public agency” as defined in the Kansas Open Records Act. Go Wichita is budgeted to receive $2,121,390 from the city this year. The agenda report is available at this link.

    DAB agendas missing. On Monday, four of the city’s six District Advisory Boards will meet. As of this moment, three of these boards don’t have their agenda available on the city’s website. Only the DAB for district 6 has its agenda available on the city’s website: The lack of availability of DAB agendas is an issue that the city should work to resolve.

    Kansas legislators learn about education reform. Kansas Senator Julia Lynn reports on a trip by several legislators: “Five Kansas legislators received a wake up call after attending the National Summit on Education Reform in Washington DC. The big take away? Kansas is embarrassingly behind on education reform initiatives including the broader concept of choice, charter school legislation, tax credit and special needs scholarship programs and a myriad of educational technology and digital learning applications. … The focus of the conference centered on the need for nationwide reform calling out our present system of public education as factory model driven by the interests of adults and a monopoly that is neither efficient nor responsive. Burdened by outdated and ineffective systems like tenure, collective bargaining, and social promotion, our system is outdated and ineffective. Worse, the model is not capable of educating diverse children to be successful in a competitive world. Governor Jeb Bush, convener of the conference and founder of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, stated in his opening remarks that ‘We are at a tipping point. We must move towards reform that puts the needs of the child first through customization of education to the diversity of the child’. … Reform of our system will not occur overnight nor will it be comfortable. It will require hand-to-hand combat with those vested in the old factory model system so corrupted by interests of teachers unions and the education establishment.” It is not news to readers of this site that Kansas is lagging in education reform. See Florida school choice helps public schools, for example.

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Thursday December 2, 2010

    Kansas lags in charter schools. It won’t be a surprise to regular readers of this site, but Kansas is way behind most states in taking advantage of charter schools. This is a school reform measure that, while not perfect and doesn’t succeed in all cases, provides a way to increase opportunity for often the most disadvantaged students. It also increases opportunity for those students who don’t directly use them. Paul Soutar takes a look at how Kansas earns such a poor evaluation regarding charter schools in his article Weak Charter School Law Works Against Taxpayers’ Interests.

    Bureaucrats Gone Wild in Cancun. Global warming alarmists are meeting, and Americans for Prosperity is there to keep an eye on them. AFP says: “The United Nations Climate Change Conference is meeting in Cancun, Mexico from November 29 — December 10, 2010 where bureaucrats will work to transfer wealth and technology from developed to developing nations by raising the cost of traditional energy. But before these international bureaucrats get to ‘work’, they decided to throw a lavish party for themselves.” A news headline spotlighted in a video produced by AFP reads “Cancun climate change summit: scientists call for rationing in the developed world. The video is here: Bureaucrats Gone Wild in Cancun. AFP is taking its Hot Air Tour there. There are two ways to view this event: online, or by attending a watch party. There’s one in Wichita Thursday evening. Click on Hot Air Tour: Live from Cancun for more information and to register.

    Obama federal employee pay freeze — or not. President Barack Obama has been praised for instituting a pay freeze for federal employees. But the freeze may not be all it seems to be. Vincent Vernuccio of the Competitive Enterprise Institute reports: “President Obama’s proposal of a pay freeze for federal employees is a small step towards curbing government spending. However, a closer look shows there is less to it than meets the eye. In fact, many federal employees will still see their salaries increased. While Obama’s plan would stop the annual across-the-board cost of living adjustment (COLA) for all federal workers, it will not stop workers from getting raises altogether. The freeze will not affect pay raises for job classification upgrades. As an official at the Office of Management and Budget told Federal News Radio, ’employees will still be eligible for step increases.’” The full analysis is at the Daily Caller in Federal workers will still receive raises despite pay freeze.

    The moral case against spreading the wealth. From The Moral Case Against Spreading the Wealth by Leslie Carbone: “After two years, the results of President Obama’s wealth-spreading policies have confirmed centuries of economics, political philosophy, and common sense: Forced wealth redistribution doesn’t make things good for everybody; it makes things worse, both fiscally and morally.” Carbone explains the two reasons: Government-mandated wealth distribution does create prosperity, and it’s not a legitimate function of government. On the type of behavior we’d like to see in people, she writes: “Wealth redistribution discourages the virtuous behavior that creates wealth: hard work, saving, investment, personal responsibility.” After explaining other problems that progressive taxation — wealth redistribution — causes, she sounds a note of optimism: “Through Tea Parties and popular protests, millions of Peters and Pauls, and Joe the Plumbers are rejecting what F.A. Hayek so aptly called the fatal conceit of paternalistic government. Decades of federal expansion have demonstrated what history, economics, philosophy, and common sense have told us all along: People, working through the market, are the engines of prosperity, both moral and financial — but only if we get government out of their way.” Leslie Carbone is the author of Slaying Leviathan: The Moral Case for Tax Reform. That book expands on the ideas presented in this article.

  • Wichita school district seeks budget advice

    The superintendent of USD 259, the Wichita public school district, has created a “Community Stakeholder Budget Committee” to “learn about the district’s budget process and to provide feedback on possible cuts,” according to a news story on the district’s website.

    According to Superintendent John Allison, the district may have to cut as much as $30 million from its budget, which, according to him, can’t be done easily and would “[impact] programs, schools, student-teacher ratios, and staff positions.”

    According to the district’s news release, cuts have already been made: “In spring of 2010, the district made $14 million in budget cuts.” And these are not the only cuts made recently: “These cuts are in addition to the $34 million in cuts that the district made in 2009.” A Wichita Eagle news story repeated these numbers.

    The problem is that these numbers don’t conform to reality. Wichita school spending, whether measured in total or on a per-student basis, has been increasing every year for a long time.

    Here are spending figures for the Wichita school district from the Kansas State Department of Education”

                       Expenditures
School Year    Total      Per-student
2000-2001   $342,754,035    $7,532
2001-2002   $383,680,515    $8,393
2002-2003   $391,651,615    $8,604
2003-2004   $421,616,834    $9,278
2004-2005   $427,914,830    $9,457
2005-2006   $477,837,441   $10,545
2006-2007   $544,384,275   $12,035
2007-2008   $548,198,385   $12,133
2008-2009   $563,837,269   $12,370
2009-2010   $579,003,042   $12,526

    In chart form, the spending looks like this:

    Wichita school district spendingWichita school district spending. Total spending, in blue, is on the left axis. Per-student spending, in red, is on the right axis.

    How the district can claim that budgets have been cut when spending has been increasing is beyond the imagination and understanding of most people — until you enter the upside-down world of government bureaucracies. In this world, bureaucrats decide how much they’d like to spend next year. If they don’t get to spend that much, they call it a budget cut, even though spending may increase. John Stossel explains:

    When normal people hear about a budget cut, we assume the amount of money to be spent is less than the previous year’s allocation. But that’s not what bureaucrats mean. “They are not comparing current year spending to the previous year’s spending,” Coulson writes. “What they’re doing is comparing the approved current year budget to the budget that they initially dreamed about having.” So if a district got more money than last year but less than it asked for, the administrators consider it a cut.

    Astonishingly, these purported cuts have come during years when fund balances in the Wichita school district have been increasing, indicating that the district is not spending all the funds it receives.

    For example, from 2008 to 2010, a period of two years, the district’s contingency fund increased its carryover balance from $12,659,616 to $16,477,282. A fund labeled “Special Reserve” increased its carryover balance from $22,096,045 to $46,616,968 over the same period. (A quick look at the district’s comprehensive annual financial report gives no clue as to the purpose of this fund.)

    School spending advocates argue that these carryover funds are necessary for various reasons, and they’re correct. Most businesses or organizations need a cushion in the bank to pay bills before revenue comes in. But the only way the balances in these funds can grow — year after year as they have — is that schools simply aren’t spending all the money they’ve been given.

    Yet with increasing fund balances, the district has laid off teachers and shut down programs.

    Furthermore, the district is continuing its ambitious expansion program, funded by the bond issue passed in 2008. While the buildings and upgrades are paid for by the bond funds and not by yearly operating funds, these new buildings and facilities will cause the district to experience significant increases in annual operating costs. In particular, the district wants to decrease class size. That’s a very expensive proposition, and research does not back up its effectiveness. But it increases the power of school administrators and bureaucrats.

    According to the Wichita Eagle story, the community stakeholder committee is to prepare questions they’d like answered. Here are several that could be asked.

  • Kansas school funds on the rise

    Kansas schools, while presenting a gloomy financial outlook, have failed to spend all the funds they’ve been given.

    Evidence of this can be found in figures provided by the Kansas State Department of Education as made available at KansasOpenGov.org.

    Kansas school carryover fund balancesKansas school carryover fund balances

    The chart illustrates rising fund balances carried over to the next year. It’s money that wasn’t spent. Note that for the schools that are part of the Schools for Fair Funding group that is suing the state for more money: As a group, their carryover fund balances have increased.

    The carryover fund balances have been increasing, and rapidly, too. From 2009 to 2010, for all school districts in Kansas, carryover funds increased from $699,150,812 to $774,648,615. That’s an increase of 9.7 percent. From 2005 to 2010, again for all Kansas school districts, the increase is 69 percent. These numbers exclude debt service and capital outlay funds. Those funds have been mostly increasing, too.

    The increase in these carryover cash balances happened at the same time schools have laid off teachers and threatened to cut programs and close schools.

    School spending advocates argue that these carryover funds are necessary for various reasons, and they’re correct. Most businesses or organizations need a cushion in the bank to pay bills before revenue comes in.

    But the only way the balances in these funds can grow — year after year as they have — is that schools simply aren’t spending all the money they’ve been given.

    The Wichita Eagle editorial board sides with the school spending advocates who claim that these funds can’t be used.

    Evidence tells us, however, that the funds have been used. For the last school year, by using fund balances, schools in Kansas were able to increase spending by an estimated $320 million. Revenue to Kansas school districts declined by about $50 million, but $370 in fund balances were used to boost total spending by $320 million.

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Tuesday November 30, 2010

    AFP to host climate conference event. This week the United Nations Climate Change Conference meets in Cancun, and Americans for Prosperity is taking its Hot Air Tour there. There are two ways to view this event: online, or by attending a watch party. There’s one in Wichita Thursday evening. Click on Hot Air Tour: Live from Cancun for more information and to register.

    Christmas organ concert tomorrow. On Wednesday December first, Wichita State University Organ Professor Lynne Davis will present the First Annual Christmas Organ Concert. This event is part of the “Wednesdays in Wiedemann” series. Tomorrow’s program includes voice with Paul Smith, theater organ with Jim Riggs, and Christmas carols. These recitals, which have no admission charge, start at 5:30 pm and last about 30 minutes, although this special performance is scheduled to last 45 minutes. The location is Wiedemann Recital Hall (map) on the campus of Wichita State University.

    Free exchange of ideas and gunfire at universities. Today’s Wichita Eagle carries a letter by a university teacher opposing the carrying of concealed guns on college campuses. One point the teacher makes is “And, ultimately, I don’t believe that universities can continue to foster the free exchange of ideas once they have been reconstituted as free-fire zones.” This idea, that concealed carry results in “free-fire” hasn’t been noticed, at least in Kansas. A Wichita Eagle article from last year, when the Kansas concealed carry law had been in effect for three years, reports no problems with the law. Firefights have not erupted in our streets as the result of the concealed carry law.

    Charter school praised, then denied. The Center for Education Reform reports on how difficult it can be to start a charter school in some states: “You’d think that 1,600 pages of meticulously crafted curriculum, staffing, school philosophy and financial planning would at least give a prospective charter school a fighting chance. Not in Frederick County, MD. Being well prepared — not to mention a more than worthy option for local parents — just means that the education establishment will sharpen their swords even more to see that you are not approved to enter ‘their space.’ Last night, the Frederick County School Board unanimously voted to block the creation of the Frederick Classical Charter School, a school that would have offered kids there a real alternative and a classically based education. Though opposition heaped praise on the proposal, they did so as they cemented their arguments against it. And they did it just because — because they felt threatened, because they were working in their own best interest, and because they could. Maryland’s charter law is so weak (it has earned a ‘D’ in CER’s latest rankings — stay tuned) that only an overhaul will level the playing field for future options in areas outside Baltimore and more enlightened districts such as Prince George’s County.” More coverage is at Give charter a chance. Maryland, with a “D” grade for its charter school law, is better off than Kansas, which received an “F” from the same organization. It’s why few in Kansas try to start charter schools. The struggle in Kansas has even been reported on the pages of the Wall Street Journal, and in response a letter writer described the charter school laws in Kansas as “pseudo charter laws that still give local districts the power to block new schools.”

    Solution to Kansas school funding. Wichita’s Brent Davis offers commentary on his blog about Kansas school spending and its advocates: “School funding advocates like superintendent Morton of Newton are clearly biased since they directly benefit from increased taxation for schools and yet there is no direct correlation in any available data of economic growth trending with educational expenditure.” Davis is in the education industry, so his opinion should be given consideration. The full article is on his blog at The Solution to Kansas’ Ed Funding Paradox.

    Kansas school landscape. In an Insight Kansas editorial as presented at State of the State Kansas, Wichita State University professor H. Edward Flentje lays out the landscape of Kansas school finance and the surrounding politics. “In sum, the education article [of the Kansas Constitution] and related court action have moved duly elected state lawmakers — the governor and the legislature — to the sidelines in governing and financing public schools. Any agenda for educational reform will be subject to the liking of the state’s educational establishment and state court judges. Most state and local board members, school superintendents, public school teachers, and the statewide associations representing these interests, not to mention school finance litigators, prefer it this way.” He also — correctly in my opinion — forecasts a dim future for meaningful school reform in Kansas: “Evidence suggests this alliance will be slow to move on reform initiatives shaping the future of public schools, such as charter schools, merit pay, student assessment, and revision of school finance, among other issues.” … While incoming governor Sam Brownback has a plan for education reform in Kansas, it seems mostly focused on revising the school finance formula and a host of minor issues. Important reforms like charters schools and teacher merit pay seem to be missing from consideration at this time.

    Tiahrt hearts committeeman position. According to the Kansas City Star’s prime buzz blog, outgoing Kansas Congressman Todd Tiahrt wants to swap positions with incoming Congressman Mike Pompeo, who has been a Kansas Republican national committeeman. According to the post: “Tiahrt said his chief motive for seeking the office is to ensure that Kansas Tea Partiers have a say. ‘I just want to make sure that when it comes to new ideas, the Republican Party doesn’t become the party of old, stodgy ideas, and that we are very receptive to this new movement and the ideas they bring.’”

  • Kansas school spending: citizens again are uninformed

    This week another study finds that Kansans, like most Americans, are uninformed about the level of school spending. Reaction of the education bureaucracy indicates that uninformed citizens are their preference.

    The KSN Television news story Survey results fan flames in education funding feud (both print and video are available) reports on a study asking people about the amount of school spending in their state. In Kansas, few knew the correct level of spending: “No more than 10 percent could guess the correct per student spending range in Alabama, New York, Arkansas, or Kansas.” 40 percent of survey respondents in Kansas thought schools spent less than $4,000 per student. 71 percent thought the figure was $8,000 or less. The actual number is somewhere around $12,000 per student.

    The survey document referred to is from The Foundation for Educational Choice, and is available at Interstate Survey: What Do Voters Say About K-12 Education in Six States?

    The results of this study confirm what the Kansas Policy Institute found earlier this year in its own poll of Kansans and their knowledge of school spending. That effort found that few Kansans have accurate information about school spending. Surprisingly, the poll found that those with children in the public school system are even more likely to be uninformed regarding accurate figures. KPI also found that when presented with accurate information about changes in school spending, few Kansans are willing to pay increased taxes to support more school spending.

    There are several important things Kansans should take away from the KSN news story. First, Newton school superintendent John Morton thinks it is “a real concern” when citizens have access to data about government spending. This is a common reaction by government bureaucrats and officials. They prefer to operate without citizen scrutiny.

    Second, the education bureaucracy in Kansas denies the reality of school spending. According to the KSN story: “[Morton] says although numbers may say schools receive $12,000 per student, only about $4,000 makes its way to daily student learning.”

    This denial of the magnitude of school spending is routine by the school spending lobby and its supporters. They also do their best to exaggerate the effects of any slowdown in the rapid rate at which spending had been increasing. This was demonstrated by Rep. Melody McCray-Miller at a recent legislative forum in Wichita. She disputed the total amount of spending by the Wichita school district. Wichita board of education member Lanora Nolan disputed these same figures at a Wichita Pachyderm Club meeting. Also see Wichita schools on the funding decrease.

    Finally, it’s astonishing that of the roughly $12,000 that Kansas schools receive for each student, only $4,000 — according to Morton — makes its way to “daily student learning.”

    May I ask: Where does the other $8,000 go?

  • Kansas and Wichita quick takes: Monday November 22, 2010

    Wichita city council this week. This week is workshop only, meaning that legislative action is limited to consent items. These items are voted on in bulk, unless a council member wants to “pull” an item for separate discussion and voting. Generally consent items are thought to be non-controversial, at least by the person who creates the agenda. This week one consent item may cause a bar to lose its license, as Hurst Laviana reports in the Wichita Eagle. Start time is 9:30 am instead of the usual 9:00 am.

    Workshop to discuss Wichita trash. Tuesday’s Wichita city council meeting will have a workshop discussing a plan for a Wichita trash haulers’ cooperative and for a recycling plan. Brent Wistrom and Deb Gruver report in the Wichita Eagle. Conservatives on the council who favor big government — Jeff Longwell, Jim Skelton, and Sue Schlapp — seem to favor the proposal. I guess it is inevitable. But I worry that if we start relying on government to manage a simple thing like trash for us, the danger is that government will want to expand its realm of responsibility to providing things like water, jobs and economic development, employee training for business, housing for low-income people, golf courses, art museums and culture, transit, ice skating rinks, airports, dances for seniors, planning services, education, retirement plans, and health care.

    Candidate for Wichita mayor noticed. Bob Nelson describes himself this way: “I am a 36 year old lawyer, technical consultant, and aviation industry professional. I am a long time Republican and conservative.” His website –maybe still in developmental state, but nonetheless visible to the world — is Bob Nelson for Mayor.

    Former Wichita school chief in news. Former USD 259, the Wichita public school district superintendent Winston Brooks, now head of Albuquerque public schools, is in the news. An administrator alleges a hostile work environment and has been placed on leave with pay. It’s not the first time highly-paid administrators have been placed on paid leave for long periods since Brooks took over. The meaning of this to Wichita? Many of the current members of the Wichita school board loved Brooks and were sorry to see him leave Wichita.

    Charter school studies examined. Carl Bialik, in a “The Numbers Guy” article in the Wall Street Journal, writes about the “confusing report cards” that charter schools have received in various studies. Some studies report glowing results for charters, and other report poor results as compared to regular public schools. Bailik does report one finding: “There is some consensus among these studies. Researchers generally have found that charter schools in low-income, urban areas boost test scores, while suburban charter schools in wealthier areas don’t.” Mentioned by one source quoted in the article is one of the best attributes of charter schools: they can’t force students to attend, so poor ones close down, unlike poor public schools.

    Rasmussen polls from last week. “Talk about low expectations” was the start of the email message from Rasmussen Reports. Examples: “Just 26% of voters now think the country is heading in the right direction. This finding continues to fall since Election Day and is the lowest reading since mid-March, largely because Democrats are down but sentiments among Republicans and unaffiliated voters haven’t moved.” (Right Direction or Wrong Track) … “A plurality (47%) of voters believes America’s best days have come and gone, a number that has remained fairly constant since the beginning of the year.” … “Thirty percent (30%) of homeowners say the value of their home is less than what they still own on their mortgage.” … “Belief that a home is a good buy for a family remains at an 18-month low.” It’s all at What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls .