Tag: Wichita and Kansas schools
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Who Runs the Wichita School Bond Issue Campaign?
As reported in the Wichita Eagle in May, the co-leaders of Citizens Alliance for Responsible Education (CARE) knew very little of the details of a telephone survey their group conducted to discover Wichitans’ attitudes towards a school bond issue. That they knew so little gives the citizens of Wichita cause to question who is in…
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CARE Dropped Ball on Educating About Wichita School Bond Issue
My friend Helen Cochran of Citizens for Better Education contributes this article, which appeared in the Wichita Eagle. In this article, Helen analyzes the work of Citizens Alliance for Responsible Education, a group that supports the Wichita school bond issue. As Helen notes, attendance at the four educational meetings CARE held was low. In one…
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Wichita School Bond Poll Results Analyzed
Wichita’s mysterious Boondoggler analyses a recent poll that covers attitudes towards a proposed Wichita public school bond issue in Bond Poll Results.
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For Wichita Public Schools, Even Simple Information Requests Seem a Problem
On June 16, 2008, I asked officials of USD 259, the Wichita public school district, two simple questions. At least I thought they were simple. One question had to do with some figures about violent acts in the Wichita schools. The number of violent acts seems high, but before I could understand the meaning of…
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Wichita School District: Tax Rates Not Increasing, But Taxes Paid Are
According to the Wichita Eagle article School board plans no tax increase for coming year, USD 259, the Wichita public school district, does not “plan to raise property taxes” to pay for school operations next year. Now if you read that and that alone, you might want to congratulate Wichita school officials for respecting the…
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Reverend Kevass Harding and His Wichita TIF District
Remarks to be delivered to the Wichita City Council, July 8, 2008. Mr. Mayor and members of the council, today I will not discuss the desirability of tax increment financing (TIF) districts in general, or the merits of this one in particular. I’ll leave that for the August 12 public hearing. Instead, I wish to…
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In Albuquerque, Someone Already Doesn’t Like Winston Brooks
Yesterday was departed USD 259 (Wichita public school district) superintendent Winston Brooks’ last day on the job in Wichita. I don’t know how much time he’s spent in Albuquerque, but someone there already doesn’t care much for him. The blog Diogenes’six contains quite a few posts about Brooks. Use the blog’s search feature.
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Kansas School Board Candidate Forum, June 30, 2008
I attended a forum on June 30, 2008, for candidates for two district seats on the Kansas State Board of Education. The event was held at Allison Middle School in Wichita and moderated by Randy Brown. Candidates attending were Walt Chappell, David Dennis, Dennis Hedke, Charles Wiggins, and Paul Casanova. Marty Marshall did not attend.…
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Wichita Business Journal: Please Explain the Wichita School Bond Impact
Mr. Heck must be relying on reporting from his own newspaper, for a few months ago it printed the article “Brooks: Bond issue possible in spring” (December 28, 2007 Wichita Business Journal) in which Brooks and Joe Johnson, head of the school district’s architectural firm Schaefer Johnson Cox Frey Architecture say that the bond issue…
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Wichita Business Journal: Where is the Increasing Enrollment in Wichita Schools?
In the recent Wichita Business Journal article Passage of 2000 school bond issue highlights Brooks’ legacy in Wichita reporter Josh Heck made this statement: “Enrollment [in Wichita public schools] has increased steadily during the past 10 years and now totals more than 48,000 students.” Readers, would you please look at the following chart of enrollment…
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Wichita Public School District’s Taxation Without Information
Taxation without information. I wish I could take credit for inventing this phrase that I recently heard someone use. It captures very well the key characteristic of USD 259, the Wichita public school district, and its campaign for the proposed 2008 bond issue.
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Wichita School Bond Issue: Surrounding Districts Are Growing and Building New Facilities
Supporters of the proposed bond issue for USD 259, the Wichita, Kansas public school district, say that Wichita schoolchildren deserve the same nice and new facilities that many of the surrounding suburban districts have been building. Typical is an editorial in The Wichita Eagle on February 10, 2008, stating “The [Wichita school] district officials kept…