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A few months ago, I registered my two children for two weeks of swimming lessons at our town’s pool. Registering my 8-year-old daughter for lessons was a nonnegotiable. She needs to continue learning skills that’ll help her keep her head above water while also gaining strength as a swimmer. My son, on the other hand, had a choice of taking lessons or not.
Some Kansas school districts are facing tough budget decisions this summer with deficits on the horizon, and the reasons are largely self-inflicted. The Kansas Association of School Boards and some state education officials try to blame the Legislature for not providing more special education funding, but school districts’ budget files show that that isn’t the issue.
School districts collectively lost 3,056 students in the just-ended school year, but they added 1,772 more employees. Employment has outpaced enrollment for a long time, which eventually can lead to budget deficits.
A record number of Americans tuned in to the presidential debate June 27, and while many thought they were going to see two well prepared candidates go toe-to-toe over the issues, they witnessed the sad truth of a candidate seeking re-election who has aged dramatically despite the American people being told Joe Biden is as sharp as he has ever been.
I guess they may be right, although I doubt it. If this is the sharpest Biden has ever been, it leaves the question of just how bad was he before? Because what the American people saw at the debate was a sad shell of a man, something many of us has seen from an aging family member or friend.
The Economist Intelligence Unit, a research and analysis section of The Economist Group based in the U.K., just released its 2024 Global Liveability Index on The World’s Most Liveable Cities. Few U.S. cities made the analysis of 173 cities across the globe.
Ratings are calculated based on five categories: Stability (25 percent), Healthcare (20 percent), Culture and Environment (25 percent), Education (10 percent) and Infrastructure (20 percent). Stability includes violent crime, military conflict and civil unrest. Healthcare includes availability of care and drugs, and healthcare outcomes. Culture and Environment includes a range of factors from humidity and temperature to corruption, censorship, and food. Education evaluates both availability and quality of education. And infrastructure includes quality of roads, housing, energy, water and telecommunications.
July 4 is upon us, and it’s a great time to encourage students of all ages to dust off those thinking caps and learn one of the most important things they’ll need as they move through life: patriotism.
For people of my generation and older, patriotism was a standard part of every school day. It was normal to frequently recite the Pledge of Allegiance, everyone standing to participate. Lessons in February often included stories about former presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, because President’s Day was observed with sincerity.
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People protest vaccine mandates in New York City in September 2021. (Pamela Drew/Flickr) TOPEKA – As a result of the Kansas Attorney General vigorously defending […]
Yahoo News photo Until one of them murdered Charlie Kirk, it was entertaining to watch the freak outs of the fussy toddlers who’ve infested the […]
TOPEKA – Continued denial by Governor Kelly to provide data on Kansas’ state-paid food assistance program for poor Kansans resulted over the weekend in the […]
Embattled Manhattan-Ogden School Board Member Dr. Katie Allen refused her colleagues’ demand that she resign her position, days after losing her job with the Kansas Department of […]
