Wichita school board candidates debate at forum

As Kansas lawmakers continued to debate school funding Friday, Wichita school board candidates told members of a local Republican club that public schools will have to find ways to do more with less.

“I keep hearing, ‘We can’t succeed with what we have. This isn’t going to work.’ But I don’t believe that,” said Michael Capps, who is running for the board’s at-large seat against incumbent Sheril Logan.

“I believe we need to change the way we look at our spending. … Whether we like what’s happening in Topeka or not, the reality is the landscape is changing. We need to embrace it.”

The Wichita Pachyderm Club forum featured three candidates: Capps, Logan and Joshua Blick, who is running for the District 4 seat in southwest Wichita.

Incumbent Jeff Davis filed for re-election and will be on the ballot but did not participate in Friday’s forum. He said he does not plan to campaign for a third term, essentially ceding the race to Blick.

Board member Barbara Fuller, who represents District 3 in southeast Wichita, is unopposed.

Logan, the current board president, said she opted to run for a second term because her experience as a former teacher, principal and assistant superintendent gives her perspective on how school districts work.

“I was in charge of an $84 million budget. I understand the ins and outs and the layering of the budget,” Logan said. “When you cut one thing, it affects three things below it, and you want to be careful.”

Audience members questioned the candidates about budget issues, school choice, administrative pay and partnerships with home-school families.

All three candidates said they would consider arrangements that would allow home-schooled children to participate in certain classes or programs at public schools even if they weren’t enrolled full-time.

“I absolutely would be willing to do that. You don’t have to be all-or-nothing,” Logan said. “Those home-schoolers live in our community … and I want them to be as well-educated as they can be.”

Blick said schools should do more to encourage students’ use and knowledge of technology.

“We need to bridge up. We could be the next Silicon Valley for our students,” he said.

Capps said he opposes Common Core state standards, which Wichita schools adopted in 2010, because the system “forces our teachers into a methodology of one-size-fits-all.”

“I like standards. Standards give us something to manage to,” said Capps, chief executive of itKansas, a technology consulting firm.

“What I don’t like are structured methodologies, because every child is unique and every child needs to be able to learn the way they most effectively will learn.”

Capps said Wichita spends more than other comparably-sized districts, including Omaha, which he said spends $100 million less each year. Logan refuted that, saying Omaha schools receive $15 million to $20 million each year in endowments from wealthy residents and businesses, and that the Nebraska district’s budget does not include retirement funds as Wichita’s does.

Logan also challenged claims from school choice advocates that per-pupil spending from tax dollars should “follow the student” to whichever public or private school a family chooses to enroll him in.

“I’m not against private and choice schools, but I am against them not playing by the same rules,” Logan said.

“We have to take every child that hits our door,” including children with medical and emotional needs that can cost $100,000 or more each year to educate, she said. “Unfortunately, private and parochial schools can pick and choose students, and we can’t.”

This story was originally published March 13, 2015 at 6:36 PM with the headline "Wichita school board candidates debate at forum."