In the three years since the Sentinel last reported on the Center for Educational Reform’s Parent Power Index, Kansas has slid more than 10 places from 34th in the nation to 45th, and from a “D” grade to an “F.”
The Parent Power Index measures the extent to which each state and the District of Columbia have policies in place that put students ahead of systems. The Parent Power Index also “values the diversity of need and condition of every family, provides vital accessible information, and by doing so affords parents the power to exercise fundamental decisions regarding how their kids are educated.”
Kansas is among only 10 states — including Washington, Alaska, South Dakota, Nebraska, Illinois, Rhode Island, Maryland, Connecticut and Delaware — to receive an “F” grade.
In 2022, only Florida ranked as an “A” on the Parent Power Index; this year, Arizona also made top marks.
Among the things examined in the Parent Power Index is access to charter schools. There are only nine in Kansas because state law requires charters to be authorized and effectively controlled by public school districts.
“What we call a ‘law-in-name-only,’ Kansas has the weakest charter law in the nation, leaving school approvals, operations and funding entirely up to the very districts that those schools founders believe do not work for their children,” the report states. “Therefore the few schools that do exist are just extensions of the school districts that approved them and new thoughts and approaches by new people to open new schools are discouraged.”
Kansas received an “F” grade on school choice programs, having only a “modest tax credit scholarship program,” which serves roughly 1,500 students.
“A low cap on dollars that can be raised against the tax credits and the fact that the program requires fundraising to give students opportunities makes this program so limiting that it’s hard to call it a choice program,” the report states. “Policymakers should support creating new programs like neighboring Oklahoma so that schools like those exemplified by Yass Prize Finalist Urban Preparatory Academy in Wichita can help more institutions to thrive and reach more students.”
Additionally, according to the report, Kansas does not currently use student achievement or growth data to hold teacher preparation programs accountable.
CER also called out Kansas Governor Laura Kelly for being “steadfast in her rebuff of the Republican controlled legislature’s efforts to pass meaningful bills to bring more education freedom to Kansas. With her statements of ‘public dollars should go to public schools, ‘ it is clear Governor Kelly is holding fast to her anti-parent power stance.”
Kansas NAEP scores show the need for more parent power
Kansas has consistently scored poorly on the gold-standard National Assessment of Educational Progress, and the 2024 scores were no different. Kansas ranks 40th in the nation on an eight-score composite of 4th-grade and 8th-grade reading and math for low-income students and their more affluent counterparts, despite ranking 15th in per-pupil spending.
The adjacent table compares the change in NAEP scores for low-income students. With ten points on NAEP representing roughly a year’s worth of learning, the average “F” state on the PPI lost at least half a year of learning, with Kansas students losing nearly a full year.
Meanwhile, students in the “A” states — Florida and Arizona — have gains above the national average.
Dave Trabert, CEO of the Sentinel’s owner, Kansas Policy Institute, says improving student outcomes is the main focus of expanding educational opportunities.
“Education administrators want kids to do better, but not if they must change adult behaviors to make that happen. Allowing students to take some of their funding with them to a private school incentivizes education administrators to identify and implement changes to overcome proficiency barriers.
“Many legislators in both parties know this to be true, but hide from voting on school choice programs. They are more concerned about remaining in office than helping students, so they don’t want to upset superintendents and risk losing an election. Parents must help legislators understand that they are more likely to lose their seat by avoiding school choice votes than by appeasing education administrators.”
Patrick Richardson – The Sentinel
Patrick Richardson has been a working journalist since 1992 at community papers across Kansas and for the last 10 as an editor for papers in Southeast Kansas, Northeast Oklahoma, and Southwest Missouri. As a freelancer, he has also broken major stories for national outlets like PJ Media and The Daily Caller. Richardson was born in Wichita and raised in Southwest Kansas and currently lives in extreme SE Kansas, with his wife, two Great Danes, English Bulldog and 10 grandchildren.
