Education

What the Espinoza decision means for school choice in Kansas 0
- Education
- July 24, 2020
The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue is hailed as a victory by school choice advocates. In short, the court held that public money can be used by students and families for education in a religious school. It struck down the doctrine held in what are known as Blaine Amendments
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Kelly’s order to delay school opening is unwarranted 0
- Education
- July 18, 2020
Governor Laura Kelly’s order to delay school opening until after Labor Day is simply unwarranted. Neither reason nor science supports such an overreach of authority. In making the ill-advised decision to delay reopening Kelly declared, “I can’t in good conscience open schools when cases in our state are at an all-time high and continuing to
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Kelly’s K-12 budget plan favors government over taxpayers 0
- Education
- June 26, 2020
When Governor Kelly signed the school funding bill in 2019, she knew it would create large budget deficits within two years. One highly placed source asked her what she would do if the state ran short of money, and she replied, “Well if we can’t afford it, I’ll just tell the court we can’t afford
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It is time to change the narrative on public education spending 0
- Education
- June 23, 2020
As the saying goes, to control the narrative is to control the world. When it comes to the sphere of public education, a dominant narrative is that the volume of funding/spending by public education is a determinant of quality. This is exceptionally true in the state of Kansas. The Kansas Supreme Court has made it
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School reopening plans a reminder that K-12 education in Kansas is building based 0
- Education
- June 9, 2020
“We are cautiously optimistic we will be in school in August 2020…There are too many students who cannot grow socially and emotionally if they are not in the building.” – Education Commissioner Randy Watson to the Kansas Association of School Boards Those few words speak volumes about how the education establishment in Kansas sees K-12
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Better teacher prep programs, not math coaches, is the answer to low math achievement 0
- Education
- May 28, 2020
A few weeks ago Education Week published a story entitled “Are Math Coaches the Answer to Lagging Achievement?”. The article cites a body of research indicating that “one-on-one coaching can improve…student achievement.” The caveat is that most of the research has to do with coaching reading and literacy, with a smaller number of studies on
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