One good piece of news from the 2017 legislative session, amidst much bad news, is that, in the current tax year, individual taxpayers can now participate in the tax credit scholarship program to help low income kids escape some of the worst performing schools in the state. There is a $500,000 annual cap on contributions from a single taxpayer to … Read More
KASB massages data, distorts with school choice “research”
A May 11 Tallman Education Report claims there is “no evidence Kansas could achieve higher student success through expanded school choice.” How does KASB make such a bold claim, given the plethora of supporting data that students all across the country have not only achieved success, but have outperformed their traditional public school counterparts? Simple, KASB massages data and cherry-picks it … Read More
Giant education establishment relentless in effort to quash tax credit scholarship program
The Topeka Capital-Journal article “Kansas House bill could narrow private school tax credit program in coming years” provides a lengthy description of the program that was passed in 2014 and where it may be headed as forces within the Legislature fight to limit and ultimately eliminate the fledgling program. The article includes all the hot-button issues that school choice opponents … Read More
New Study Shows At-risk Charter School Students Outperform Those in Exclusive Schools
There is no shortage of those critical of charter schools, and most of their criticism is baseless. The doubting-Thomases like to claim that charter schools drain money from traditional public schools. Reviews of charter school funding from coast to coast show otherwise. They claim charter schools do not take special education or other special needs students – also not true. … Read More
Walton Rural Life Center – Exhibit A that Kansas has no real charter schools
What if there was a public elementary school that took a different approach to teaching and learning? And this school became so popular modular buildings had to be installed and students had to be turned away. It would continue to expand to accommodate the increased demand, right? Not in Kansas. In Kansas the school could face closing, because this isn’t … Read More
Private Schools Better for Low Income Students
The Kansas Association of School Boards tried to give legislators the impression that public schools do just as well as private schools like Catholic and Lutheran schools when adjusting for poverty rates, but the real data shows otherwise. This scatter plot chart was included in their testimony last week, with the red dots showing the Catholic Dioceses and Lutheran schools. … Read More
State of the State puts students, citizens first
Governor Brownback’s State of the State address notably emphasized that students and citizens should come first, not government. That sentiment created a great deal of heartburn for the many legislators and special interests who prefer big tax increases, upwards of $1 billion more in spending and no accountability for schools to improve outcomes but it was welcomed by those who … Read More
What Trump’s Education Secretary could mean for Kansas school choice
It appears president-elect Trump will not jettison the U.S. Department of Education. Too bad. However, the news is not all discouraging because Mr. Trump has tapped Michigan’s Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary. Ms. DeVos has a strong record in the area of school choice, having led the charge in her home state’s first school choice program in the 1990s. This … Read More
Highland Park students’ Florida trip is a reminder of the need for school choice
Imagine you’re a low-income, but academically high achieving student stuck in an inner-city poor performing high school. You think your only post-secondary option is community college. But along comes the district superintendent who takes you to a national conference in Florida, showing you what a big world is out there. That’s what happened to four seniors at Topeka’s Highland Park … Read More
The system is not the solution – “Kansans Can” Part 2
Note: This is the second installment analyzing the new State Board of Education/Kansas State Department of Education initiative called “Kansans Can.” Click here for the first article. Until the breakup of the Bell system in the 1980’s, AT&T had a monopoly on phone service; people had no choice. In order to reassure customers that they were in good hands, one … Read More
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