Tag: Wichita and Kansas schools

  • Wichita Public Schools as a Public Good

    Supporters of the proposed bond issue for USD 259, the Wichita, Kansas public school district, portray Wichita’s public schools as a “public good.” Therefore, the entire community should pay for — and be happy to pay for — the ongoing operations of the schools, and should be willing to invest in a large bond issue…

  • Wichita School Bond Issue: Who Is Running the Survey?

    A recent newspaper article reports on a telephone survey regarding a proposed bond issue for USD 259, the Wichita, Kansas public school district. (“Pro-bond group conducts survey,” May 22, 2008 Wichita Eagle.) The article starts as follows: The citizen group that supports a proposed $350 million bond issue for Wichita schools is conducting a telephone…

  • Let’s Spend on Wichita School Facilities, But Not Maintain Them?

    A writer in The Wichita Eagle (May 21, 2008) makes the case that since one of the persons opposed to the proposed USD 259 (Wichita public school district) bond issue in 2008 hasn’t been in a Wichita public school for many years, he isn’t as credible as he could be. If he would take a…

  • Wichita public schools: Open records requests are a burden

    I recently learned that USD 259 (the Wichita, Kansas public school district) considers it a burden when citizens make requests for records. At least that’s what Lynn Rogers, vice-president of the board of USD 259, told me at a May 12, 2008 meeting when I was invited to express concerns regarding my opposition to the…

  • Wichita School Board Information Management

    Our friends at the Wichita 259 Truth blog have a nice article commenting on my recent appearance before the Wichita public school board of education. Wichita School Board Information Management

  • Focus on class size in Wichita leads to misspent resources

    A popular measure proposed to produce better educational outcomes in public schools today is to reduce class size. The Wichita, Kansas public school district is currently proposing a bond issue with a partial goal of reducing class size. At least some of the recently-mandated increase in school spending in Kansas was used to reduce class…

  • Remarks to Wichita School Board Meeting, May 12, 2008

    So the shifting landscape of facts has been a problem for us. We find ourselves in a position where if we rely on facts from public documents and formulate an argument based on them, USD 259 will revise the facts, and we will be scolded on the district’s website and the editorial pages of the…

  • Wichita School Bond Issue: The Election That Wasn’t, and Maybe Shouldn’t Be

    Wichitans for Effective Education wish to remind the residents of USD 259 (the Wichita, Kansas public school district) that on February 11, 2008, the board of USD 259 passed a resolution declaring that a special election was to be held today, May 6. That resolution asked the citizens of this community to approve a $350…

  • Investment in Wichita Public Schools

    A letter writer in the April 27, 2008 Wichita Eagle makes the case that investment in USD 259 (the Wichita, Kansas public school district) has a good return. By way of comparison, the writer argues that the Wichita airport, having been built with public funds, represents “an investment return.” Whether it represents a good return…