An education forum in Overland Park drew criticism from a Kansas gubernatorial candidate Thursday.
Democrat candidate and state Sen. Tom Holland leveled an attack at GOP gubernatorial candidate Sam Brownback over the forum that featured former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, also a Republican.
“Rather than present a specific plan of his own, Senator Brownback wants to copy Florida’s failed education system where the graduation rate is among the worst in the country, where poorer communities are forced to raise property taxes to keep their schools open and where public dollars are given away to private groups through vouchers,” Holland said Thursday.
Recently, as part of his “Road Map” announcements, Brownback and running mate, state Sen. Jeff Colyer, announced their plans for state education. Among those plans were action policies are proposals to increase retention of educators and recognize and reward those who become masters of their profession.
“We believe teachers who truly excel at teaching and provide a model of teaching excellence should be recognized and rewarded,” Colyer said.
But, Holland cited a low graduation rate in the state during Bush’s final year as governor as well his voucher program being ruled unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2007 — his final year in office — Florida’s graduation rate was 63.6 percent, compared to the national average that year of 73.2 percent. Kansas’ graduation rate in 2007 was 77.6 percent.
One thing that has been vague in the Brownback campaign is the state’s school funding formula.
When he announced his education plan, Brownback said that he would work with the Legislature to reform the school finance formula to “break the cycle of litigation.” However, Holland refuted that by saying that Brownback has not been specific enough with how he would solve K-12 funding.
It’s time Sam Brownback stops hiding his agenda for Kansas schools and comes clean on what changes he would make to our school funding formula,” said Holland.
NOTES: During the education conference on Thursday, Brownback announced the formation of Educators for Brownback, a group of teachers and administrators who are supporting the GOP ticket.
On the Web:
Sam Brownback campaign: http://www.brownback.com
Tom Holland campaign: http://www.tomhollandforkansas.com
Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140
