WICHITA, Kan. - In the discussions relating to education on this blog, the topic of one-room country schools has come up a few times. One faithful blog reader and poster asked if I would write about my experience teaching in a one-room country school. I will be happy to do so as long as people realize that my experience may not have been typical for a variety or reasons, the major reason being my incompetency as a teacher at that point in my life.

My then husband, a librarian, took the job as the Audrain County librarian in the summer of 1965. The library was located in Decatur, Michigan, a town of 1,800 located thirty-five miles southwest of Kalamazoo. Decatur was the ideal place to live and raise children. Lake of the Woods, a small lake, was within walking distance of our house. We were on the edge of town and mornings we woke to the sound of cows mooing and the good country smells that come with rural living.

TOPEKA, Kan. - In response to yesterday's posting on the efforts by the telecom industry in Kansas to undo the Kan-ed program, I received the following statement from Bradley S. Williams, M.S., CIO & Executive Director of Kan-ed. It outlines well the programs and services provided by Kan-ed to the people of Kansas:

I am reaching out to you directly today because Cox Communications (Wichita), who is a Kan-ed Authorized Provider, has elected to lobby against Kan-ed members and their funding. Cox Communications has asked House Speaker Mike O'Neal (R-Hutchinson) to introduce House Bill 2390 to eliminate Kan-ed effective July 1, 2011. The Speaker of the House indicated yesterday he is supportive of the bill and we also know that Representative Joe McLeland (R-Wichita), is also pushing to dismantle Kan-ed as he has done every year since Kan-ed inception.

If Cox and the Speaker are successful with HB 2390, then all Kan-ed connections and services will go away. That includes all network and video connections, Renovo Video scheduler, licenses, and servers, MCU, Kan-edLiveTutor.com (homework Kansas), Empowered Desktop and LS test builder, EMResource (hospitals ER database) and E-rate support just to name a few... all gone.

TOPEKA, Kan. - Last week, on March 14th, at the request of the Speaker of the House Mike O'Neal (R-Hutchinson), the chair of the Kansas House Appropriations Committee, Marc Rhodes (R-Newton), introduced HB 2390 that would abolish Kan-Ed and transfer all remaining assets to the state's general fund effective July 1 of this year. Internet access would continued to be administered by the Kansas Universal Service Fund, that is overseen by the Kansas Corporation Commission, but other services provide by Kan-Ed would expire.

Kan-Ed was created by the Kansas Legislature in 2001 and administered through the Kansas Board of Regents. The purpose of the program is to expand the collaboration capabilities of Kan-Ed's member institutions: K-12 schools, higher education, libraries and hospitals through the use of technology.

As such, it provides services including hospital ER databases, provides libraries, schools and hospitals with affordable and high-speed Internet connectivity, the ELMeR videoconferencing network, research databases (including all K-12 databases and Heritage Quest), Kan-Ed Live Tutor (Homework Kansas), and more.

Thugs! Parasites! Bloodsuckers! Mediocre slackers! Class warfare against the rich!

WICHITA, Kan. - It's in the air everywhere -- unionized public workers are the cause of all the ills of the world, if not the universe. All those once trusted public servants, teachers, police officers, fire fighters, social workers, prison guards, health care providers, cafeteria workers, among others, have now become Public Enemy #1. Public sector workers, people who go to work every week day and sometimes at night and on weekends, are now, according to anecdotal reports, earning out-sized salaries and ruining our economy with their demands. They're taking taxpayer money (otherwise known as salaries) and using it to support corrupt unions. Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and 18 Wisconsin senate Republicans think so poorly of unionized state workers that they voted to end collective bargaining rights. Is this opprobrium against public workers spreading throughout the country?

MANHATTAN, Kan. - The Manhattan Monthly Film Series continues in February with the showing of the Josh Fox's GasLand, winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The film will be shown at 6:30 pm on Wednesday February 9th at the Manhattan Public Library. The film is free of charge and open to the public.

GasLand looks into the Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing that has contributed to the largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history. But serious questions exist to its safety and environmental impact.

Director Josh Fox becomes personally involved with the issue when he is asked to lease his land for drilling. Unable to get his questions answered, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and environmental contamination. A recently drilled Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. The film is part verité travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown. It informs the American people about another legacy given to us by the Bush administration.

EMPORIA, Kan. - I attended the December graduation ceremony for Emporia State University where my wife is a professor. In casually scanning the brochure that had been prepared to accompany the 'pomp and circumstance,' I noticed an exceedingly larger percentage of business (especially MBA) grads were of Asian or Arab ancestry.

Perhaps that is to be expected given the increasing globalization of the marketplace. Having so many foreign students helps keep tuition for in-state residents lower than it would otherwise be but in the long run I fear we, as a nation, may find ourselves to be little more than mass market consumers of goods made in China, information technology supported from India and over-extended debtors to Saudi princes.

What a shame.

OLATHE, Kan. - As the Brownback administration prepares to do battle with the citizens of Kansas, it's time to look again at the arguments that corporations and religious conservatives will be using to promote school vouchers and other privatization schemes.

In her now-aging-but-still-relevant article, Why The Right Hates Public Education, Barbara Miner lists the following as a few reasons:

Education is a multibillion dollar market, and the private sector is eager to get its hands on those dollars.

Conservatives are devoted to the free market and believe that private is inherently superior to public.

Shrinking public education furthers the Republican Party goal of drastically reducing the public sector.

Privatization undermines teacher unions, a key base of support for the Democratic Party.

Privatization rhetoric can be used to woo African American and Latino voters to the Republican Party.

I'd like to offer a few additional reasons that corporate and right-wing religious interests have in killing public education ...

EMPORIA, Kan. - The California Supreme Court ruled today that it is constitutional for the State of California to offer in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants who have successfully attended high school and would otherwise qualify. (Here's the link.)

What's the connection to Kansas you may ask? Kris Kobach, the recently elected Kansas Secretary of State, staked his entire (only slightly less than literally) campaign on his supposed expertise as a "constitutional lawyer." Moreover, Kobach touted his involvement and support to various political organizations around the country in "fighting" against illegal immigrants in general and especially against states offering in-state tuition benefits. He's also against the proposed federal DREAM Act which would provide similar treatment.

Mr. Kobach is not a mere bystander in this case. He filed an amicus brief on behalf of the opponents of the California law.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Star reports that of 1,855 Kansas Public Schools, 255 failed to meet their AYP (adequate yearly progress) targets set by the No Child Left Behind act, George W. Bush's signature education program. Failure to meet the targets means that schools will lose their funding under the provisions of the law. If a school does not perform under these standards, they are punished by having their money cut off. Presumably the schools will do a better job educating the kids with less money.

COLBY, Kan. - A few days ago, Brad asked a question in his comment on Marty Keenan's post, addressing taxes and education. "So while I like the idea of people pressing their legislatures for more funding, how can one be sure the tax increase will be targeted to the programs we want?"

Well, Brad, in a perfect world you wouldn't need to worry about it, would you? However, we don't live in a perfect world. - too many of us imperfect human beings -

When the majority of us 'adults' have progressed beyond our infantile stage, when we were aware of only our immediate needs - dry diapers - warm milk - cozy covers - etc. - and learn that we can't always be the center of attention and that by screaming louder, we can't get what we want - then maybe we can expect society to understand equity and fair treatment for everyone.