By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — A policy retreat offered the Kansas Board of Education opportunity to explore how local school boards could be liberated from much of the state’s educational bureaucracy by reshaping standards to emphasize instruction in the basics of reading, writing and math.
Conservatives on the 10-member state Board of Education expressed support Monday in personal and philosophical terms for a shift toward fundamental subjects. During the informal gathering at a Topeka office building, right-leaning members said time had come to curtail state mandates bearing down on 284 school districts serving nearly 500,000 students.
Cathy Hopkins, Hays, who serves as chair of the state Board of Education and represents District 5 covering much of western Kansas, said the board was guilty of piling burdensome responsibilities on teachers and administrators. It could be necessary to jettison a large portion of state mandates to improve the ability of local districts to deliver for students in fundamental subject areas, she said.
Her personal agenda for the upcoming two years centered on helping students excel in reading and writing because prowess in those core areas would create an educational ripple effect on student learning.
“How do we get back to that? The core,” said Leavenworth state board member Danny Zeck, who serves as the board’s vice chair. “Get rid of all this Barbra Streisand stuff that we’re doing. What we’re doing now … is not working. We need to get down to the basic stuff for these kids — that they can read and write and do arithmetic and maybe there’s some computer skills and go from there.”
State board member Debby Potter of Garden Plain said accreditation standards for public schools set by the state board had to be condensed.
“There’s a whole range of people and they don’t all have to know math at the level of every other one to be successful,” Potter said.
She indicted the state board should be operating at a 20,000-foot level in terms of academic directives. Local school boards should be allowed to fill in details of academic standards to reflect the character or needs of individual districts.
“God made us to want to learn and gain something we don’t have. All we have to do is provide the tools,” said Hutchinson board member Dennis Hershberger.
He said young children were being harmed by parents who gave them a PlayStation gaming device instead of a box of Crayons. He said he yearned for the past when a jar of pencils on a shelf or a chalkboard at the front of the classroom were keys to the educational experience.
Peering into future
Randy Watson, commissioner of the Kansas State Department of Education, began the policy retreat by emphasizing the value of public service performed by the state Board of Education members. He asked the eight board members in attendance to consider policy amendments that could be accomplished in the next two years, but requested each be framed in terms of children and their families.
“This isn’t about trying to bait people,” Watson said. “All of you not only serve different parts of the state, you come at this job from a different perspective.”
He reminded board members of Article 6, Section 2 of the Kansas Constitution that declared the Kansas Legislature “shall provide for a state Board of Education, which shall have general supervision of public schools.” And, Article 6, Section 6 of the document: “The Legislature shall make suitable provision for finance of the educational interests of the state.”
Interpretation of those constitutional duties has prompted major legal battles every 20 years of so that ultimately were addressed by the Kansas Supreme Court, he said.
“You have a lot of authority, as does a local board,” Watson said. “What does a kindergartner need? What does a third-grader need? How do you build that? We can’t do everything.”
Politically moderate members of the state Board of Education said during the retreat in Topeka that Kansas ought to maintain a central role in the academic evolution of school districts statewide. They said the state board’s mission of delivering educational opportunity to all students had to remain a cornerstone of Kansas’ pre-kindergarten through high school public education system.
There was discussion of students’ demand for instruction in life skills, which have been designed by the state board to prepare graduates for a career or college.
‘Our own story’
Board member Betty Arnold of Wichita said compaction of instruction to reading, writing and math to the exclusion of other parts of a person’s education ignored reality because many students arrived in public school buildings ill-equipped to learn. Time devoted to mentally preparing students to succeed in school and life shouldn’t be viewed as an extravagance, she said.
“It’s more difficult to teach a kid who does not believe in him or herself,” Arnold said. “No students come to us the same way.”
Hershberger, the Hutchinson state board member, said he was “old-school” and recalled how he struggled emotionally as a child to overcome barriers to reading aloud in class. Students experience real education when they accomplished something they didn’t know they were capable of doing, he said.
“Every child unless there is some mental disability … has the capability of learning to read no matter what their background is,” Hershberger said.
In response, Arnold said it would be wrong for a state board member to transfer personal school experiences from decades ago to decisions about what was necessary to educate children in this era and the future.
“We have to be able to live outside of our own story,” Arnold said.
Melanie Haas, a state board member from Overland Park, said state board placed proper emphasis on a commitment to individual plans of study for students as well as issues related to values and morality. She said the Kansas Education Systems Accreditation program, which was crafted so district-level decisions were made about improving educational opportunity, was in place.
“We’re right in the middle of it. We’re doing it,” Haas said.
In terms of statewide reform, she said, it was imperative the state board concentrate on improving school culture by minimizing friction between teachers and administrators.
“When you have a great administrator who gives autonomy to those in school, you see that in student success,” Haas said. “When you have someone who is micromanaging and telling teachers what to do, and ruling, I think that’s where you see these cultures start to break down.”
She said surveys showed students welcomed instruction in life skills tied to personal, academic and vocational success, including social-emotional learning, practical skills for daily living and character development.
Zeck, the northeast Kansas member of the state board, said he was frustrated with emphasis on life skills in public schools.
“If we’re going to talk about life skills, I would like it to be black and white and not a whole bunch of gray,” Zeck said. “If we’re going to simplify things, then we need to simplify them and not have all this gray stuff.”