As I noted in an earlier blog, Bob Corkins, who was picked Tuesday to be the new state education commissioner, has no education experience, no education training and no significant managerial experience, having most recently run two tiny conservative think tanks that basically consisted of him and a computer. So how on Earth is he qualified to oversee K-12 education for the entire state? Apparently, the State Board of Education doesn’t even know. Here’s a revealing exchange with chairman Steve Abrams, reported in the Lawrence-Journal World: “Asked to name an achievement by Corkins, Abrams said Corkins had been able to accomplish what his think tank boards asked him to do. Such as? ‘You probably ought to talk with his employers,’ Abrams said.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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28 Comments
He answer the right question:State BOE member: Which is it, Evolution or I.D.?Corkins:”Well God told me…”.
Oh my head hurts, I think I will make an appointment with the clerk at Quick-trip! The stop by the Doctor’s office and get a soda.
Just following Dubbya’s lead from the White House. Where is Forrest Gump when we need him? “stupid is as stupid does”
By virtue of being unqualified, he is qualified. This reflects the Zen principles that guide the ultra-right Christian thinking on the BOE.
Who is the bigger fool? Bob Corkins or the people who will still blindly send their children to public school?
Uh, Proudman, I sent my child to public school in Wichita and he was accepted to an Ivy league college.
He graduated in May.
Too bad about all the rich kids who blew their parents’ money at Collegiate, hehe . . .
Galahad, is there any area in which you’re not better or smarter than everyone else?
Yes. I’m not rich enough to be a Republican!
The deal with my son was not bragging–it’s just to counter the totally wrong-headed notion among ELITIST conservatives that a kid can’t get a good education at a public school.
It’s a crying shame that we can’t sue a state board for stupidity.
Most things in this state are ran by people from a large and powerful tribe:THE IDIOTS!
Actually, I wouldn’t say you can’t get an education at a government school, but you sure are rolling the dice.
Personally, due to the lack of experience, Corky should spend the first 3 months of appointment getting to know his constituents. Spend one week each in different classrooms as the sole teacher. And the last week spent as a principal at one of the major middle schools.
Galahad, Steve nailed your arrogant,obsessive act but good.
Ivy league schools have so many diversity allocations that your son’s acceptance means nothing in itself. For all we know, he was accepted because they hardly get any applicants of your ethnic group from Kansas.
While I can understand the idea of bringing someone in from the outside it would have been nice to see someone qualified to run SOMETHING. Perhaps a business leader with a track record of accomplishment. When asked about Corkins’ accomplishments Steve Abrams basically replied “beats me!”
Sounds like another FEMA – Wrong guy in the job.
Andy,
Nice racist assumption that Galahad’s son was admitted to an Ivy League school because of minority set-asides. Got any proof of that, racist?
Heh, can there be any doubt Andy is a new Puny alias?
I wish I could say that my son got in for the same reason that Bush got into Yale, a wealthy, established family.
That’s affirmative action too, except for the rich.
No, my son got in under the white, protestant, male “quota,” although it no doubt did help that he was from Kansas (fewer applicants from the Midwest).
There’s no way to spin it. He was average in every way except that he was a good student, graduated from a Wichita public school, and got accepted to one of the eight most exclusive colleges in the US.
Conservatives want to believe that gov’t can’t do anything right, and then they hire people like Bush to make sure it comes true.
Americans aren’t buying it anymore.
Let’s assume for a minute Galahad isn’t making up the story about his son. (This is a blog after all) How can one claim that public schools are/were good enough for my kid when you just sent him off to private school? Aren’t the Kansas schools that we all pay for good enough?
Racist? I never said anything about “minority set-asides”, CF. Anyway, diversity is about more than protected minorities. Besides, whites are an ethnic group, just not one of your protected ethnic groups.
Here for all to see is CF getting all tangled up in his PC world. Everyone knows that colleges have quotas, based on all sorts of things, including ethnicity, home state, etc. But if a person brings it up, he’s a racist, according to CF. What crap!
Anyway, Galahad says that quotas “no doubt did help” get his son accepted. So my point was right. I repeat.
“For all we know, he was accepted because they hardly get any applicants of your ethnic group from Kansas.”
Many Wichita public school students get excllent educations and are accepted to the best colleges. Congratulations to all of them.
It just depends on what your definition of “is” is, right, Puny as Andy?
If you’re saying that public schools in Kansas are good enough that a diligent student can compete and win against any student in the country and gain entry into an Ivy League school, then you’re right.
If you’re saying that Kansas kids only get into to good schools because they “have to take a certain number from Kansas,” you’re wrong. The grades and graduation rates would put the lie to that, wouldn’t they?
And that does seem to be what you’re saying when you say this–”Ivy league schools have so many diversity allocations that your son’s acceptance means nothing in itself.”
It means “nothing?” WRONG! It means that Kansas schools are perfectly able to turn out top quality graduates.
You’re playing with language ambiguity to back-pedal from your sleazy, insulting original post.
Real nice . . .
Proudman, he chose to go out East for his education. His two equally smart siblings went to KSU and KU.
Look, your original point was that Kansas public schools are failures. I used my son as an example that they’re not.
Muddy the waters all you want, I’m right, you’re wrong.
Steve was absolutely right. Mr. Callous (sp.?) – aka Galahad – is on a self-inflated ego trip. Everyone else be damned.
Yup . . . when you can’t beat the argument, beat the arguER.
Textbook ad hominem.
Galahad, you’re using anecdotal evidence to support your claim. Find a way to dispute the poor student performance tracked on the KBOE website. One or three students out of the thousands does not justify a success.
I also hope your happy to be paying so much for that private school, not like those “rich kids who blew their parents’ money at Collegiate, hehe . . .”
He got a full-ride scholarship.
Okay, now I am bragging.
Galahad,
I’m very glad someone was there to provide for your children.
Now back on the subject. Do you have something besides anecdotal evidence to dispute the poor test scores in Kansas public schools?
ProdMan–
Give me a break. If I paid for his tuition, I shelled out too much money. If I didn’t have to pay for him, he got “charity.”
Screw this damned if you do, damned if you don’t crap.
Galahad,
I’ve obviously pressed your buttons. That was never my intention.
However, I never said that people who pay for private school pay to much money. That was you.
And your son is getting the right kind of ‘charity’. That’s charity between two willing parties, not enforced government waste.
When Corkins was named, some lawmakers began talking about passing a proposed constitutional amendment allowing voters to decide whether they want to abolish the elected board.
“If there is a backlash to this, it most likely will be questioning anew whether the Board of Education should be disbanded and replaced by a secretary of education named by the governor and confirmed by the Senate,” said Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence.
Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Jean Schodorf said it’s beyond “likely.”
“I promise you it will be back in the next session,” said Schodorf, R-Wichita.