Opinion

OPINION – KASB tries to whitewash new lower proficiency standards with deception and false claims

GUEST COLUMN, David Trabert, Kansas Policy Institute

When something sounds too good to be true, it often is — like the State School Board and the Kansas Department of Education claiming that skyrocketing proficiency levels are not related to the state dumbing down proficiency standards. Now, the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB) is joining the chorus with a new video denying that proficiency standards were reduced.

Entitled “Why Kansas Adjusted Cut Scores,” the video attempts to convince parents that the State School Board didn’t reduce proficiency standards, but is merely adjusting previously misaligned standards to “give a fairer, more accurate picture.”

KASB and the State Board of Education want you to believe, for example, that eighth-grader reading proficiency jumped from just 22 percent last year to 46 percent without changing the proficiency standard. Their allegation that previous results were inaccurate doesn’t stand up to the facts.

Finding God on our journey

MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron

Imagine embarking on a road trip with a GPS that knows every shortcut, every hazard, and every scenic view, not just for the route ahead, but for one's entire life. That's a glimpse of discovering that God is with us on our spiritual journey. He is the infinite Creator, holy and transcendent, far beyond our limitations.

We must guard against remaking Him in our image, shaping Him to fit our desires or expectations. Instead, as we travel through life's twists and turns, we discover His true nature through Scripture and experience. Let's first look at some of God's unique attributes. Then we'll take a look at Jacob, as a sort of mirror of our journey. Finally, we will explore God's attributes in action.

Congress must restore IP protection to drive US innovation

GUEST COLUMN, Paul Michael

Founding a successful startup has never been easy, but a little-known U.S. Supreme Court ruling has made it even more difficult in recent years by enabling corporations that use startups' patented technology without permission to get off nearly scot-free.

Now, Congress has a chance to set things right. On Feb. 25, Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., reintroduced the Realizing Engineering, Science, and Technology Opportunities by Restoring Exclusive, or RESTORE, Patent Rights Act, a bipartisan bill that would enable startups and other patent holders to block infringers from unlawfully exploiting their patented technology.

Pick up Charlie Kirk’s flag and keep fighting for America

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

The dream of America cannot be won on foreign shores. We are required to face all foes, both foreign and domestic.

Abraham Lincoln said it would be impossible for a foreign invader to ever invade or overtake America. He said, “Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.”

Hook, line, and sinker: MAGA readers took the bait

GUEST COLUMN, J. Basil Dannebohm

Shortly after the Trump regime’s illegal military occupation of Los Angeles, Governor Gavin Newsom began relentlessly trolling the 47th President, mocking his serially absurd social media posts.

The MAGA community came predictably unhinged.

Fox News personality Dana Perino said Newsom “has to stop it with the Twitter thing. I don’t know where his wife is. If I were his wife, I would say you are making a fool of yourself, stop it.”