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 and and impetus for improving all Kansas schools.
Kansas doesn’t have many charter schools. Part of the problem in Kansas, Soutar reports, is the law that governs charter school authorization: “… unlike most other states, Kansas charter schools are not truly independent. State law says they can only be authorized by school districts. That’s like Burger King having to ask McDonald’s for permission to open down the street. Even when local school districts authorize a charter school, there are obvious problems achieving the independence and educational difference charter schools are intended to offer.”
The article also explores the battle over school choice programs in Kansas.
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Free choice for rich kids means less choice for the kids of workers that actually produce the wealth for the prosperous.
Lonny, “rich kids” already have school choice. They go to private or parochial schools, or they move out of the Wichita school district.
It’s lower income families that don’t have choice. They can’t move to Maize or Andover.
In many districts across the country, it’s lower income families that take greatest advantage of school choice programs, and who are the most grateful for the opportunity to escape their failing school districts.
Okay. You have made a good point.
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