You might want to check out the debate on our Opinion pages today between Kansas Education Commissioner Bob Corkins and myself. The Eagle editorial board wrote an editorial in January that looked at the question of whether charter schools in Kansas are performing better than public schools. What we found out from Corkins’ assistant commissioner was that charters aren’t getting better achievement results and aren’t any more efficient than public schools. Corkins’ response accuses the editorial board of not wanting innovation in schools and wanting to throw away at-risk kids. My column asks: Huh? Just because we point out that the reform he has been pushing doesn’t seem to be getting better results, we hate kids? Such muddled reasoning would be laughable if Corkins’ job weren’t so important.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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21 Comments
“Corkins’ response accuses the editorial board of not wanting innovation in schools and wanting to throw away at-risk kids.”
What a moron. His latest effort to dumb down the children comprises allowing non-licensed teachers unrestricted teaching credentials in schools. It would be up to the districts to implement this so-called program.
His excuse for wanting this is because he clains it is difficult to find credentialed teachers in Kansas. Well, duh . . . What teacher in his or her right mind is going to move to kansas and teach in an atmosphere that has become the laughing stock of the nation?
It’s about time Corkin removed himself from a position he is so vividly unqualified for and let someone with some common sense run the KBOE.
Good points all, Walker. For all the noise we make about education, I wonder if it’s a thing Kansans as a whole value. We sure throw up enough roadblocks to getting a good education, don’t we? An educated workforce is critical to bringing good decent-paying jobs to Kansas. Wonder why our kids leave as soon as they can?As Walker says, what teacher in their right mind would want to come here to teach?
KBOE has taken us back to the Dark Ages.
Corkins needs to put a cork in it.
I agree with Phillip on this, to a point. Although I think he fired a little hard at Corkins. (I know – he invites most of it) However, it’s real simple. If charter schools are not out performing public schools then why push for them. Though I for one don’t beleive we have anything conclusive as of yet. And it should be pointed out that our schools are doing a pretty good job. Our kids score very well on all tests at all levels. None the less we should continue to look at different ways to improve education for Kansas children. Vouchers and charters are just one thing that should be investigated. Different school hours, schedules, teaching methods, teacher training and rewards and incentives, as well as the use of industry pros teaching subjects such as math and science, just to name a few. And with much respect XXX, I beleive that Kansans as a whole do value education. They just differ on what is the best way to accomplish this. Remember even the teacher unions throw up what up could appear to be road blocks at times. You certainly can’t call them anti-education. An issue as important as educating our future should stir debate. This debate will in the end, lead to the best solutions. Our history proves this.
Corkins reminds me a little of Don Quixote and tilting at windmills.
It’s impossible to dislike the Don, but damn that’s one stupid knight.
What with NCLB (and paying for it), the ratio of per capita public ed costs to public school revenue (and the brewing battle over significant consolidation that will shape so profoundly Kansas’s future), and the old battle between “why pay for Kansas kids when they just leave the state anyway” vs. “increase the lob statewide,” Corkins picks charter schools as _the_ solution to all that ails us.
First things first, or Corkins is rightly seen as a goofball “visionary” rather than a Kansas Education Commissioner functioning at US$140,000 per annum.
——————————-
At this point they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that are on that plain.
“Fortune,” said Don Quixote to his squire, as soon as he had seen them, “is arranging matters for us better than we could have hoped. Look there, friend Sancho Panza, where thirty or more monstrous giants rise up, all of whom I mean to engage in battle and slay, and with whose spoils we shall begin to make our fortunes. For this is righteous warfare, and it is God’s good service to sweep so evil a breed from off the face of the earth.”
“What giants?” said Sancho Panza.
“Those you see there,” answered his master, “with the long arms, and some have them nearly two leagues long.”
“Look, your worship,” said Sancho. “What we see there are not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are the vanes that turned by the wind make the millstone go.”
“It is easy to see,” replied Don Quixote, “that you are not used to this business of adventures. Those are giants, and if you are afraid, away with you out of here and betake yourself to prayer, while I engage them in fierce and unequal combat.”
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/don_quixote.html
OK then.
At this point, I have questions rather than answers.
#1) What is Bob Corkins bio, education, work experience, etc. Where did he go to college? Has he ever taught school or worked in a school system (not that its necessary but I’m curious).
#2) Where are the current “26 charter schools” mentioned in the editorials, generally located? (Big cities, small communities, etc, ??) Are they part of local school systems or are they run by the Kansas Board of Education?
Phillip, if he hasn’t seen it already, is getting a lesson at how the right wingers work it.
You say, don’t support policies that don’t work.
They say, why do you hate our kids?
You say, don’t spy on Americans illegally.
They say, why do you want terrorists to win?
You say, justify the American deaths in Iraq and the billions of dollars spent.
They say, why are you a coward who wants to cut and run?
There’s no reasonable position, no fact based conclusion, that can’t be smeared and slimed by the right-wing machine.
JWink, Corkins is a lawyer, but has spent most of his career as a conservative think tank director. He lobbied some for chambers before that. He has no teaching experience. 2 big problems for Corkins, he made 40K prior to this and he is a conservative.
Marty – I would add two more big problems for Corkins – he has zero educational experience and zero management experience. The “think tanks” he directed were himself and a PC.
My second question above is about the “26 charter schools” that apparently currently exist in Kansas. Generally where are they? I’m not looking for a list but are there any here in Wichita area now? Do they report to the local school board or do they report to the Kansas Board of Education?
Is Corkins trying to establish a new bureacracy of charter schools that would report to him and the State BOE?
It would appear that Corkins primary “qualification” is to kowtow to his masters, the over the top members of the Board of Evangelism.
Corkins exposed.
Well who is surprised?
The far right..and Corkins is as far right as they come… does not want to “reform” public education anymore than they want to “reform” social security, welfare, medicare, medicaid or just about anything else they claim to want to “reform”
Corkins wants to ELIMINATE public education and this is VERY illustrative of the “right” as a whole.
Oh they want schools. For those that can PAY. They might also embrace a sort of apprenticeship system typical of Victorian England. But by and large? Their idea is “well the world needs ditch diggers too!”
Curriculumn at the Bob Corkins “public school”Hour 1……watch tapes of “Survivor”Hour 2……why the boss is always right!
Hour 3…..How God tells us the boss is always right
Hour 4….Survival of the Fittest!…..why evolution is so wrong about biology and so right for economics!
LUNCH……..those that have one are encouraged to share it with classmates that they like, can get them to do their dirty work for, or who provide them personal amusement.
Hour 6…….demeaning those not “industrious” enough to get lunch
Last hour…..personal reflection on why the fed and happy are well justified and further chastisement of the “hungry malcontents”
Below is a link to a power point presentation entitled “Kansas Charter School Annual Report, December 2005″. It provides a Kansas map with the locations of the Charter schools. It appears they are located mainly in rural areas. Various and sundry data are presented, too.
http://www.ksde.org/presentations/Board%20Charter%20Schools%20Dec%2005final.ppt#266,1,Kansas Charter School Annual Report
It should be noted that the above PP is, I would say, favorable in its treatment of Charter schools (probably reflecting the views of Corkins). There are achievement comparisons made and Charter schools lag behind public schools in the later grades, but not so in the earlier grades.
Biggest mistake the Legislature ever made was making the SBOE a separate entity.
What, exactly, does the State Board of Education do that can’t be done by local school boards, other than embarrass the whole state?
I have known Bob for about 30 years and he doesn’t have a honest bone in his body. He doesn’t tell the public that we was a car salesman in Lawrence before going to Law school. Bob always has a hidden agenda that is his top priority not the students. I think is hiden agenda this time to to lower the funding to school districts.
If his true agenda is to do away with public education then good for him. Public education is nothing more than a form of child abuse!
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
I disagree, he doesn’t want to lower the funding for public schools, Corkins and the conservative members of the State Board of Education want to fund religious and private schools using tax dollars in the form of vouchers.
If you want a good laugh, watch the last Wichita School Board meeting. School Board Member Chip Gramke’s line of questioning makes Corkins look like a bumbling idiot.