Courageous Conversations: A Colossal Failure

Several months ago I wrote about the hundreds of thousands of dollars the Lawrence school district has spent on a socialist and, frankly, racist program known as "Courageous Conversations." USD 497 has contracted with the San Francisco-based Pacific Educational Group (PEG) since 2010 to bring this program to Lawrence. The stated goal of the program is to reduce the achievement gap between white and minority students.

Unfortunately, USD 497 appears to have gotten little, if any, return on its investment with PEG. Consider these charts:

As you can see, the percent of African American students scoring proficient or above in reading grew significantly between 2006-2009. However, the percent scoring proficient or above has essentially leveled off since then, despite hundreds of thousands spent with PEG since 2010.

The percent of African American students scoring proficient or above in math also grew significantly between 2006-2009. Gains were made in 2011 and 2012. However, the percent scoring proficient or above in 2013* is actually lower than it was before the district contracted with PEG.

Like African American students, white students are doing slightly better in reading than they were doing in 2009. However, like African American students, in math white students made significant gains between 2006-2009. And, like African American students, white students performed better in 2009 than they did in 2013.

If we compare the percent of students scoring proficient or above in 2009, which is before PEG began working with the district, with 2013, we see that the gap between white and African American students has narrowed by just .4%. However, the gap in math proficiency has grown by 2.8%.

Unfortunately, this lack of progress appears to be common with districts that have worked with PEG. For example, after paying PEG more than $850,000 over three years, the achievement gap between white and black students in St. Paul, Minn., remained unchanged. The achievement gap between white and Hispanic students actually widened. Nevertheless, in 2013 the school board there voted to spend another $380,000 with PEG for the 2013-2014 school year. That's equal to the salaries and benefits of 7.5 teachers. 

* Kansas did not release data for 2014.

Peter Hancock's reporting is on shaky ground

Peter Hancock has replaced liberal activist Scott Rothschild as the Lawrence Journal-World's statehouse reporter. However, he appears to have the same odd obsession with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as Rothschild had. In a December 5 article, Hancock writes about Kansas state legislators attending an ALEC meeting. In the article, Hancock makes the following claim:

ALEC has come under fire in recent years, and several of its corporate members have dropped out. Some of those, such as General Motors, have cited ALEC's support for "Stand Your Ground" laws that allow people to use deadly force to defend themselves in any place where they have a lawful right to be if they reasonably believe they face an immediate threat of bodily harm or death. 

A Florida version of that law was used in 2013 to acquit George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager.

Of course, Stand Your Ground was not used to acquit George Zimmerman, as ABC News noted earlier this year:

When a Florida jury deadlocked on the first degree murder charge against software developer Michael Dunn, the state's controversial "Stand Your Ground Law" was once again hoisted into the media spotlight. 

Dunn was convicted on four other charges in the case, in which he fired 10 times at an SUV after an argument with the teens inside about how loud their music was, and will likely be sentenced to a minimum of 60 years behind bars.

As in the case of George Zimmerman, acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin, the public outrage was often directed or misdirected, at the Florida law. 

Many, including legal commentators who should know better, repeatedly citing the statute as a crucial issue in both cases. 

And yet neither defendant invoked the controversial aspects of Florida's law. In fact, both defendants argued basic self defense law that would have been similar in just about every state in the nation.

Praeger the Prevaricator

Sandy Praeger, the RINO Insurance Commissioner for the state of Kansas, has stepped into the 2nd Congressional District between the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, and her Democrat Party challenger, Margie Wakefield of Lawrence.

According to the Topeka Capital-Journal on October 24, "Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger said in an interview information shared by Jenkins on Medicare cuts, premium rates and policy cancellations was 'just across-the-board wrong.'" Praeger was then quoted as saying the following: "

No polices have been canceled due to [the Affordable Care Act]."

That is a flat-out lie. The fact that millions of Americans had their policies canceled due to Obamacare was the basis for Barack Obama's oft-stated claim, i.e., "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it," being named as PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year" for 2013. According to PolitiFact, "So this fall, as cancellation letters were going out to approximately 4 million Americans, the public realized Obama’s breezy assurances were wrong." 

The cancellations did not stop in 2013. According to Politico on October 17, 2014, "More than 22,000 Coloradans were informed in the past month that their health coverage will be canceled at the end of the year, state insurance authorities disclosed this week, a spike in cancellations already roiling the state’s fierce campaigns for the Senate and governor’s seat." Further:

Health plan cancellations in late 2013 exploded into a national controversy that only subsided when President Barack Obama rewrote Obamacare rules to let states and insurers revive canceled health plans and continue them for up to three years. 

Colorado was one of those states, but the Rocky Mountain State only agreed to let substandard plans continue through 2015. Ten insurers have agreed to continue their plans through 2015, Salazar noted, but the nearly 200,000 people covered by those insurers face the same cancellation notices next year if they haven’t obtained coverage that meets Obamacare standards by then.

Make no mistake about it--these plans are being canceled due to Obamacare. Praeger lied to the Capital-Journal, which should surprise no one since she has a long history of lying to advance her left-wing agendas.

Lawrence Journal-World blames Democrat's education cuts on Brownback

In the October 19 issue of the Lawrence Journal-World, "reporter" Peter Hancock engages in the mainstream media practice of citing a study from a far-left think tank without telling readers that it is a far-left think tank with a far-left agenda. In this case, Hancock cites the Center for Budget Policies and Priorities (CBPP). In The Practical Progressive: How to Build a Twenty-First Century Political Movement (2008), Erica Payne, co-founder of the Democracy Alliance and former Deputy National Finance Director for the Democratic National Committee, lists CBPP as an organization that is part of the "Progressive Infrastructure." It's board of directors includes many who would be recognized as those on the left.

But what was really egregious about Hancock's article, which claims, according to CBPP, "direct state funding for public schools in Kansas is still nearly 15 percent less than it was before the start of the Great Recession," is that Hancock blames Gov. Brownback for education spending cuts that took place under Mark Parkinson, Brownback's Democratic predecessor.

Below is a chart that shows the average spending per pupil in Kansas from 2005-06 to 2014-15. As you can see, the average amount per pupil dropped during the 2009-10 school year and then again in the 2010-11 school year. The average amount then began to increase again year after year beginning with the 2011-12 school year.

Note that Gov. Mark Parkinson became governor in 2009 when Gov. Kathleen Sebelius went to Washington, D.C., to serve in the Obama administration. Parkinson was also governor in 2010, when the state budget was set for fiscal year 2011.

However, this is what Hancock reported: "Kansas began cutting budgets in 2008, under then-Gov. Mark Parkinson, a Democrat, when state revenues began to plummet following the collapse of the financial industry and national housing market that fall. They continued in 2009 after Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, took office."

Again, Brownback did not become governor until January 2011 (also, note that Sebelius, and not Parkinson, was governor in 2008).

Is this a case of liberal historical revisionism or extremely sloppy reporting? Who knows? However, the Journal-World's readers deserve a front-page correction to this front-page article.

Margie Wakefield doesn't love Obamacare?

Just how unpopular is Barack Obama in Kansas? In a October 10 Facebook post, Margie Wakefield, Democrat candidate for the the U.S. House, takes issue with incumbent Rep. Lynn Jenkins, who linked Wakefield to Obamacare in new commercial.

"Congresswoman Jenkins has a new, negative television ad that claims that I said that I love Obamacare," Wakefield whines. "That is a lie, plain and simple. I have never said that I love the Affordable Care Act because it does have flaws that need to be fixed."

Wakefield did not elaborate on what she believes to be the Obamacare flaws that need to be fixed. Of course, saying that something or someone has flaws does not mean we do not love that something or someone. For example, we love our spouses and children, regardless of their flaws.

Apparently, Wakefield's "I don't love Obamacare" stance is a relatively new one. On her personal Facebook page, she has a March 23, 2013 post in which she "liked" a post from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Facebook page. That page was promoting a bumper sticker with the message "I 'Heart' Obamacare."

As far as lying, in a May 8, 2014 article in The Iola Register, Wakefield is quoted as saying, "The majority of Americans like the new health insurance law." In truth, there has never been a poll that has shown Obamacare has majority support. In fact, in July a Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that Obamacare is more unpopular than ever. Just 37% of those poll had a favorable view of the law.

Greg Orman flip flops on voting as a "private behavior"

I find it interesting that independent U.S. Senate candidate Greg Orman claims that he voted for Mitt Romney in 2012. He has made this claim in an attempt to distance himself from Barack Obama. However, check out this interview Orman did with MSNBC. After being asked if he'll vote for Sam Brownback or Paul Davis for governor of Kansas, he replies: "You know, I'm not making that decision public. I think your voting behavior is ultimately a private behavior."

What's good for the goose is good for the mountain goat?

Economist Stephen Moore wrote an outstanding piece in Forbes magazine last week in which he compares the economies of Kansas and Illinois. This article deserves a larger dissemination in Kansas, such as in the Kansas City Star. Unfortunately, that won't happen since the Star has noted that it will no longer publish opinion pieces from Moore.

In a July 7, 2014 column in the Star, Moore took on far-left economist Paul Krugman. Shortly after, Star columnist and editorial board member Yael (which literally means "mountain goat") Abouhalkah discovered that Moore's column included outdated data. Abouhalkah's discovery led Miriam Pepper, editorial page editor of the Star at that time (she has since retired), to announce, “I won’t be running anything else from Stephen Moore.”

Douglas County Conservative wonders if the Star will hold other columnists, including Abouhalkah, to the same standard. For example, in September 9, 2009, Abouhalkah reported that two polls "show Obama won big time":

Two polls that matter show President Barack Obama had a strong showing with the American people Wednesday night. 

His passionate speech on the absolute need for health care reform resonated with many. 

-- The CBS News poll said Obama's approval rating soared from 62 percent to 69 percent after the speech. 

-- A CNN poll said 68 percent of its respondents gave a thumbs up to the speech. Only 8 percent were negative. 

Now Obama must build on the strength of his good speech to get real health care reform passed in Congress. 

The moment of success he created Wednesday night should not be allowed to wither and die in Washington.

Note that there was not a single major poll that showed Obama's approval rate above 60% in September 2009. The highest was a CNN/ORC poll that showed Obama's approval rate at 58%. The highest CBS News poll that month showed Obama's approval rate at 56%. So where did Abouhalkah get that Obama's approval rate went from 62 percent to 69 percent after he delivered a speech on health care? Apparently, from a March 2009 Huffington Post article. According to that article, "A CBS News poll of approximately 500 people saw approval of the president rise from 62 percent before the speech to 69 percent afterward." In other words, Abouhalkah used outdated data, i.e., polling from six months earlier to make the point that Obama's approval rating increased dramatically after a speech delivered in September 2009.

The same Huffington Post article also shows that Abouhalkah used outdated data regarding the CNN poll: "Meanwhile, a poll on CNN showed that 68 percent of respondents -- who skewed a bit Democratic -- viewed the speech positively, 24 somewhat positively, and only eight percent not positively."

Abouhalkah presented outdated polling from March 2009 to make a point regarding a speech Obama gave six months later. Nevertheless, the Star continues to publish his columns five years later. It is quite possible that Abouhalkah simply made a mistake and there was no nefarious intent on his part. However, we could say the same of Stephen Moore. If the Star gave Abouhalkah the benefit of the doubt, shouldn't they extend the same courtesy to Moore?

In another case, on Monday, October 10, 2011, Abouhalkah wrote the following: "I know the Occupy movement is having some effect, because ultra-conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh called the Americans involved in the group 'idiots,' 'clowns' and other names Monday."

It would not have been possible for Limbaugh to have done that on October 10, 2011. Limbaugh had a guest host, Mark Davis, that day.

UPDATE: Douglas County Conservative emailed this item to Steve Paul, the new editorial page editor at the Star, and asked, "Given this, I wonder if the Star might reconsider its ban on Stephen Moore's op-ed pieces." Paul replied with one word: "No."