Tag: State Board of Education

Kansas pitches plan offering 9 hours of college courses to ‘under-resourced’ high school students

Objective is to welcome more lower-income students into higher education

The Kansas Board of Regents and Kansas Board of Education met to consider developing an $11 million state-financed program to offer an estimated 10,000 low-income students 9 credit hours of college courses as an incentive to transition into higher education. (Photo by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector)

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Kansas Board of Education member Betty Arnold believes a program offering lower-income students nine credit hours of college courses while in high school can propel more toward two- or four-year degrees — on one condition.

Arnold, who represents Wichita, Derby, Mulvane and Haysville, said the $11 million initiative under development by the Kansas Board of Regents could make a real difference if participating high school juniors and seniors understood the career opportunities emerging from investments in higher education. Lack of insight about the future, she said, frequently drained students of motivation to take that next step in education.

“Many of the students we talk of reaching have no idea of, ‘OK, I get a degree. What do I do after that?’ A lot can be accomplished if there was a way to educate students to the possibilities,” she said.

The Kansas Board of Regents briefed the state Board of Education on the proposed Kansas First – Diploma Plus plan to offer grants paying community college, technical college or university tuition and fees for an estimated 10,000 under-resourced high school students who qualify for free or reduced lunch programs in high school.

High school students would be enrolled in six credit hours of basic education courses such as algebra, history, composition, public speaking or sociology. The other three credit hours would be in career-oriented subjects such as biology, business, criminal justice, education or social work.

Blake Flanders, president of the state Board of Regents, said the 2023 Kansas Legislature could be asked to finance $11 million of tuition and fees for these students, in addition to $1.9 million for placing counselors in high schools to work with students on preparation for college. The standard rate paid to colleges and universities by the state under the draft proposal would be $113 per credit hour.

“I think this is the year we really need to break through,” Flanders said. “We know it’s not necessarily a baccalaureate for all. I think that’s something we need to just get out there. But it is post-secondary.”

Randy Watson, commissioner of the Kansas State Department of Education, said the model could be the successful state-financed program steering 32,000 high school students to technical education instruction through dual enrollment in high school and college. That program created during the administration of Gov. Sam Brownback has exceeded expectations in terms of student interest.

“How do we get that done? How do we come together?” Watson said.

The Board of Regents, the state Board of Education and higher education institutions taking part in delivery of courses to high school students could form an influential lobbying coalition during the legislative session starting in January.

Cindy Lane, a member of the state Board of Regents and a former superintendent of public schools in Kansas City, Kansas, said exposure of high school students to a college environment would help them develop a personal vision of higher education.

“From my perspective, it’s all about an opportunity gap,” Lane said. “We hear a lot about equity gaps. It’s not about kids’ capacity to do the work. It is about not having access to the opportunities of connecting their dreams to that post-secondary pathway. The big idea here is that we’re going to cultivate talent.”

High school students who find success in the proposed dual enrollment initiative would be more likely to see college as a logical option, said Carter Fine, president of Hutchinson Community College.

It would also shorten a student’s time to completion of associate or bachelor’s degrees, he said.

Fine said the state subsidy for tuition and fees would address a major barrier to college enrollment. The current proposal would include enough funding for 40% of 26,000 Kansas juniors and seniors categorized as economically under-resourced.

People from middle-class families struggled with college costs, he said, but individuals from low-income families found it “practically impossible” to afford a higher education.

The state Board of Regents has oversight of six public universities as well as community and technical colleges in Kansas. The state Board of Education has jurisdiction over K-12 districts statewide.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/09/16/kansas-pitches-plan-offering-9-hours-of-college-courses-to-under-resourced-high-school-students/

Kansas education commissioner publicly apologizes for racist story on Native Americans

Watson offered to resign, but state board imposed one-month, unpaid suspension

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The Kansas commissioner of public education apologized Tuesday for telling attendees of an online education conference that when growing up he attempted to convince people visiting the state they should be more afraid of dangerous American Indians than violent tornadoes.

Randy Watson, who was suspended without pay for one month after disclosure of his racist remark, said during the Kansas State Board of Education meeting that the recollection of a story from his youth betrayed his personal 40-year career in education devoted to valuing every student. It was his first public comment about the offensive statement uttered in mid-February to people participating in a professional education conference.

“I really let some people down and hurt people with things I said. The very people and groups of kids I tried to uplift every day, I failed to do so on that occasion,” he said.

Gov. Laura Kelly joined Native American legislators and tribal leaders who called on Watson to step down from the administrative job overseeing coordination of K-12 public education in Kansas. He submitted a letter resignation, but the state Board of Education voted to reject the offer following a closed-door meeting with Watson. Instead, the 10-member board ordered the commissioner to serve a one-month suspension.

“There are a lot of kids, every teacher knows this, that go unnoticed. They are not the 4.0. They’re not in sports,” Watson said. “I dedicated my life to really trying to make sure that every child felt valued, every family was uplifted, especially kids that maybe didn’t have a family life.”

Video of Watson’s remarks obtained through a Kansas Open Records Request showed Watson speaking to the Kansas Virtual Learning Conference. He made a reference to a tornado in the 1990s before sharing with listeners that during his youth he attempted to convince relatives they ought to be more frightened of American Indians than of violent storms that might erupt in Kansas.

“I had some cousins from California. They were petrified of tornadoes,” Watson said on the video. “They’d come visit us, you know, in the summer. They were like, ‘Are we going to get killed by a tornado?’ And I’d say, ‘Don’t worry about that, but you got to worry about the Indians raiding the town at any time.’ And they really thought that. Grow up in California, I guess you don’t know much of the history of Kansas.”

Watson, a former school administrator in McPherson, was hired by the state Board of Education as the commissioner in 2014. He began his teacher career at Tescott High School.

Board of Education chairman Jim Porter said the board decided remarks by Watson weren’t career ending and the board was committed to engaging in restorative justice. Porter bristled after others in state leadership publicly pressured Watson to step down, despite the state Board of Education’s responsibility for personnel decisions of executive leadership in the state education department.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/04/12/kansas-education-commissioner-publicly-apologizes-for-racist-story-on-native-americans/

Senate tackles fresh redistricting controversy with state Board of Education map

State Board of Education proposes alternative focusing on status quo

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The Kansas Senate leadership proposed Monday a redistricting map for the 10-member Kansas Board of Education that critics indicated unnecessarily placed four incumbents in head-to-head showdowns.

The proposed map ran into opposition when unveiled during a meeting of the Senate Redistricting Committee, which previously contributed to shaping new Kansas Senate and U.S. House maps. The state Board of Education boundaries must include four contiguous Senate districts.

Under the “Apple” map offered by Senate Republicans in the form of Senate Bill 577, districts of the state Board of Education would be modified to create a hypothetical race between Salina Republican Deena Horst against Garden City Republican Jean Clifford.

In addition, the proposed map could pit Democrat Janet Waugh of Kansas City, Kansas, against Democrat Melanie Haas of Overland Park. Waugh is unlikely to seek re-election in 2022.

Shifts contemplated by the Senate GOP could result in transitioning the board’s six Republican, four Democrat construction to an eight Republican, two Democrat split.

Five state Board of Education members must stand for re-election in 2022 if they want to remain on the board. The other five members would each serve a newly drawn district, even if they didn’t live within boundaries of that assigned district, until up for re-election in 2024.

Jim Porter, chairman of the state Board of Education, proposed an alternative map developed by members of the state board. It was named “Little Jerusalem Badlands,” a reference to the state’s newest state park, and labeled Senate Bill 576. It was based on redistricting standards endorsed by the Senate and House, including deference to incumbents.

He said the map followed new Senate boundaries and grouped together four contiguous counties for each Board of Education district. None of the current 10 members of the state Board of Education would have their residence drawn out of their current district, he said.

“This map was created by the Kansas State Board of Education for the Kansas State Board of Education, which has for the last decade developed a tight relationship with its districts,” Porter said. “We realize that populations shift, so some Kansans will have to adjust to new district constituents. However, we desire to keep these changes to a minimum.”

“Our proposal takes into heavy consideration existing district boundaries and incumbents. With only half the body up for election every two years, it is prudent to draw boundary lines that resemble current district lines as closely as possible,” he said.

The Senate committee didn’t vote on a map during its initial meeting, but plan to keep working this week on the mapping project.

None of the people submitting testimony to the committee were in support of the Senate GOP’s map.

Patrick Gouger, who lives in the Shawnee Mission School District and the 2nd District represented by Haas, said the GOP Republican map violated redistricting guidelines. He said it would dramatically change geographic areas served by board members, displace incumbents and neglect the goal of keeping school districts, cities and counties whole.

Gouger said it would split north Johnson County’s Shawnee Mission School District among three separate state Board of Education districts. The three state Board of Education members sharing that piece of Johnson County also would be responsible for diverse interests of residents of Wyandotte, Miami, Douglas, Leavenworth, Franklin, Osage and Shawnee counties.

“Let me be clear from the outset. SB 577 smacks of the aggressive, partisan overreach so favored by this committee throughout the 2022 redistricting process,” said Leslie Mark, who piggybacked on Gouger’s critique. “‘Apple’ is a rotten, worm-eaten gerrymander.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/03/28/senate-tackles-fresh-redistricting-controversy-with-board-of-education-map/