Kansas education

Two years into the COVID pandemic, students aren’t returning to public school in droves. So Kansas districts are starting budget talks with pared-down enrollment numbers and tightened belts.

Conservatives say the plan would give families stuck in failing school districts a chance at a life-changing escape. But school administrators fear a flood of students they’re not prepared for and who come with needs they can’t afford to accommodate.

The Democratic governor also vetoed bills that would raise the barrier to eligibility for food stamps and broaden COVID-19 lawsuit immunity for health providers.

"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie was challenged by the grandparent of a Derby ninth-grader. A district committee decided to no longer allow teachers to use the novel in lessons and to remove it from the library at Derby North Middle School.

Wichita-area school board member Andy Watkins said he raised concerns about the video because he thinks terminology used in it “has a direct tie to critical race theory,” and he was concerned about “making this terminology … the norm.”

More than twenty students and teachers from Kansas City-area schools gathered to support public educators against bills in the Kansas legislature that they say undermines their profession.

In a statement before the Kansas Board of Education's private session Friday, board president Jim Porter criticized the governor and others for publicly calling for Watson to resign.

Gov. Laura Kelly says commissioner Randy Watson should resign for "derogatory and discriminatory language" he used last week during a conference.

Controversy about the video centers on its mention of white privilege, a phrase that refers to inherent advantages that white people have over people of color on the basis of their race.

Under a proposed Parents' Bill of Rights, Kansas K-12 schools and libraries would no longer be exempt from obscenity laws, opening them to potential criminal charges if they distribute material found to be harmful to minors.