State faces education issues

The time, words and emotions wasted on the evolution-creation issue during current Kansas Board of Education campaigns will detract from the real education issues facing the KBOE, the Legislature, the future governor and all Kansans. So let’s dispatch with this bugaboo quickly before turning to those issues.

Kansans spoke loudly and clearly in the 2000 KBOE election by voting anti-science KBOE members out of office. Kansans overwhelmingly rejected the effort to remove evolution from statewide tests, a move that brought the state worldwide scorn. Now, two years later, editorial voices across the state decry the complacency and low turnout among Kansas voters that is blamed for the defeat of two moderate incumbent board members in the Aug. 6 primary. The price of this complacency is a probable 5-5 split on the KBOE between conservative and moderate members.

The split may mean a renewal of the evolution-creation debate in Kansas, but the focus of current campaigns for the KBOE, as well as other state offices, should be on real education issues, not religious beliefs. It should be about policies and curricula designed to educate Kansans for the 21st century. What are the real education issues? Here are a few:

How can the state maintain educational excellence for Kansas schoolchildren in the face of shrinking revenues and budget shortfalls? How can the K-12 science, mathematics, arts and humanities curricula best arm Kansas schoolchildren to think critically and succeed in higher education? How can that curriculum improve the poor scores by many Kansas students on math and science tests?

How can it keep Kansas students competitive in the national workforce and prepare Kansans for leadership in an increasingly complex, high-technology world? How can we rescue the 40 percent of K-12 students who educators say are underperforming for no identifiable reason? How can we bring educational equality to all classrooms across Kansas and save the smaller and poorer school districts from the knowledge divide? We should expect from the KBOE a serious discussion of these and other real education issues.

The issues facing higher education are just as tough and remarkably similar. How can the state fund its universities to be at the cutting edge and competitive nationally in teaching, research and public service? How should it do so during economic downturns? How can the state help Kansas universities recruit and retain the best students, faculty and staff? What are the smart strategies for turning university teaching and research into widespread knowledge that fuels social progress, economic growth and our quality of life?

In this age of the knowledge economy, Kansans deserve and should demand a discussion of the real education issues facing the state. Such discussion will require tough intellectual honesty about the collateral economic damage to the state of failing to invest in educational excellence in K-12 schools and community colleges, or in teaching and research at state universities. A successful strategic plan for Kansas will require bold, informed and innovative leadership that can tackle and meet the state’s educational responsibilities today and tomorrow.

What should happen now? Civic groups should organize serious debates and town hall meetings with candidates for the Kansas Legislature, governor’s office and KBOE so that we can hear their best ideas on the state’s education challenges. Kansas newspapers should use their editorial pulpits to hold the feet of these candidates to the educational fire. Kansas political parties should demonstrate their commitment to educational excellence with platforms that endorse nationally accepted standards over factional and sectarian views.

In 2000, Kansans recognized that K-12 and higher education are the essential drivers of economic and social progress in Kansas. In 2002 and beyond, we need to make sure that all of our elected representatives recognize this as well.


Leonard Krishtalka is director of the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center at Kansas University.