Tag: Wichita and Kansas schools
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KNEA doesn’t care for Proposition K
You can often tell how good a measure will be for taxpayers and prosperity by how strongly the people who live on government spending protest. When they distort arguments to the point of lying, you know it’s going to be really bad for them if a measure passes — and really good for everyone else.…
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Articles of Interest
American exceptionalism, longer school days, landfill violations, Kansas vs. Missouri, open government.
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Wichita homeless schoolchildren count exaggerated
When an institution needlessly exaggerates the severity of a situation, it diminishes the plight of the true problem. That’s the case with USD 259, the Wichita public school district, when it reports that 1,200 Wichita schoolchildren are homeless.
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Some Wichita school district promises aren’t important, it seems
A Wichita Eagle Editorial Blog post doesn’t consider the obvious solution to a problem. At issue is the state of Kansas’ “promise” to help local school districts pay for school bonds.
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For Wichita school contracts, it helps to pay
USD 259, the Wichita public school district, has recently decided on some architects to award contracts to for work funded by the 2008 bond issue. Citizens might have wondered why so many architectural and construction firms had such a high degree of interest in public schools. But these firms know that if you want to…
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Kathy Cook of Kansas Families for Education: ‘Do as I say, please’
At the federal level, we’ve seen a few examples of big-taxing Democrats who don’t pay their own taxes. Some of this might be explained by the complexity of the federal tax code. But local property taxes are pretty easy to handle. There’s no return to file. The county sends you a bill, and you pay.…
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Kansas school lobby: not enough spending, not enough taxation
In Topeka, the Kansas Association of School Boards rarely misses an opportunity to complain that spending on government schools is too low. The same goes for the Kansas National Education Association, the teachers union.
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Should the Wichita school superintendent live in the district?
The Wichita Eagle reported that USD 259, the Wichita public school district, superintendent candidate Denise Wren doesn’t live in the boundaries of the district she presently works for and seeks to lead. (School board likely to decide on superintendent Monday) A few thoughts come to mind: 1. This isn’t the most important issue. But it…
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Wichita Choices Fair equals selective vouchers
Here’s a letter that appeared in today’s Wichita Eagle. The author makes a good point. I think the answer to the author’s rhetorical question is that USD 259, the Wichita school district, believes in choice, as long as it’s choice on their terms. The choices offered by USD 259 are very limited when compared to…
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Public education illustrates special interest politics
One of the problems with government today is the proliferation of special interest groups, and then how issues are framed according to the needs of these special interest groups. You might think that public education would fall outside the wrangling of special interest groups. After all, it’s “for the kids,” as we’re reminded. But the…
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Articles of Interest
Kansas Senate scraps higher fines for speeders along perilous roads (Jeanine Koranda, Wichita Eagle). In a defeat for Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, the Kansas senate decides to skip his plan for higher traffic fines along Wichita’s main east-west highway. Perhaps he’ll do better with entertainment zones. Upside-Down Economics (Michael Kinsley, Washington Post). In this column,…
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Wichita Schools Thrive With Wichita School Castoffs
A big part of the bond issue in 2000 for USD 259, the Wichita public school district, was the elimination of portable classrooms. This desire played a part in the 2008 bond issue, too. So when I was driving by the Annoor Islamic School in northeast Wichita and I spotted some portable classrooms, I immediately…