Sebelius encourages education through collaboration
P-20 Education Council officially launches, taking aim at the gaps kids slip through
3:45 p.m. Thursday, July 3, 2008
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When the Kansas Supreme Court decided the 2006 school finance lawsuit, who knew that it would pave the way for a multi-agency effort to foster a skilled, educated workforce prepared to face 21st Century challenges?
Yet today, as Gov. Kathleen Sebelius kicked off the P-20 Education Council's first meeting, the school finance judgment -- a guaranteed $541 million for three years -- was there, bringing Kansas into a new era of public education.
With the funding in place, Sebelius said the time was right to create a multi-agency coalition that will align all of the state's educational institutions and decrease the number of students who are "dropping out, falling out or checking out along the way."
The term P-20 stands for pre-school through graduate school. Ideally, the council would find a collaborative way to bring every Kansas student through those 20 years of education. The council will create a comprehensive system of education with strategic benchmarks for success in Kansas, she said.
"What we need is a strategic group to focus on how to get it right now, to take that 3 year old through graduate school, make sure we link what's happening in the schools with real skills," she said.
Among the strategies Sebelius supported was more emphasis on early childhood education, an issue she has been passionate about since taking office six years ago.
"A fairly alarming study was done five years ago by the Department of Education indicating that 50 percent of the 5 year olds who hit kindergarten in Kansas are not school-ready," Sebelius said.
Sebelius noted the lack of connection and communication between early childhood education, K-12, higher education and vocational and community colleges.
With her executive order to officially launch Kansas P-20 Education Council, Kansas joins more than 30 states who have launched P-20 or similar coalitions.
Sebelius took note of the success Kansas has seen as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
"I think we could say that Kansas is in better shape than many around the country," she said. "As we look at our global challenge, America is not in good shape at all."
Despite or perhaps because of successful educational efforts in countries like China, Singapore and India, Sebelius urged the council to move forward with strategies that would strengthen education and create potential employees who can be competitive with the global pool of candidates.
"So just the numbers are staggering and alarming that we're spending more money than any other country on Earth and that our reults are still not up to par," she said. "So moving to international benchmarking, looking at some of the challenges that we have are very important, but I don't htink that there's any question that there couldn't be a more important time for you all to come together and focus on this initiative."
Kansas Commissioner on Education Alexa Posny, Kansas Board of Regents President Reggie Robinson and Jennifer Dounay with the Education Commission of the States also spoke to the room of mainly legislators, educators and education professionals.
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Jul. 7, 2008 at 4:18 p.m. (Suggest removal)parkay (anonymous)
Legalized abortion, over the last 3 decades, has caused a sharp increase in premarital fornication, and more disregard for the use of contraceptives, since abortion was supposed to cure all the problems caused by such behavior. Many women refused to commit abortions, finding some human decency in their soul, and illegitimate births soared. Men no longer felt obligated to marry pregnant women, since abortion was their choice, so without many adoptions or obligated weddings, single-parent families increased sharply. The disadvantaged children of single mothers were more likely to become dropouts and criminals.
So, overall, abortion causes a decrease in educational achievements and an increase in crime. Any elimination of unwanted babies through their mangling, dismemberment, poisoning, and beheading is more than offset by the societal and economic disadvantages of the increase in single-parent families.
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