10/5/2009
DUANE SCHRAG
The recession is hammering schools from every direction, Deputy Commissioner of Education Dale Dennis told Salina’s Rotarians Monday.
It is driving enrollment in public schools up because families that once could afford to send their children to private schools no longer can. It’s driving enrollment up because Kansas natives who moved to better paying jobs in other states are moving back home to the shelter of their families. More pupils means more cost.
It has increased the number of students eligible for free lunches — a measure of at-risk students that puts additional demands on the system — by 10 percent.
All the while the relentless timetable of No Child Left Behind is putting increasing pressure on school districts to raise student performance. The Kansas Supreme Court put the state on notice several years ago that it had to increase its commitment to poor and disadvantaged students.


For more on the problems facing state schools, read reporter Duane Schrag's story in Tuesday's Salina Journal.

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