Topic: Self-executing powers of the State Board of Education
Interview of Dale Dennis, August 28, 2020
Interviewed by Andy Tompkins
People interested in the development of education policy in Kansas will find no better resource than this 2020 oral history interview with Dale Dennis, Deputy Commissioner of Education. The interview was conducted by Dr. Andy Tompkins, a former Kansas Commissioner of Education. During the interview, Dennis speaks candidly about policy development, identifying the issues and the legislators who were intrinsically involved. The interview covers the 1972 lawsuit which was the first dealing with issues of equity in school funding. Twenty years later, a 1992 school finance lawsuit again challenged the lack of equalization which rendered the formula unconstitutional. Dennis explains Show Morein detail the process by which the Legislature, Governor Joan Finney, Speaker Marvin Barkis, and others went about addressing the Court's concerns. By 2000 the Legislature had again failed to fund the school finance formula fully and the Montoy lawsuit arose. Another case, Gannon, began in 2010. This time the problem was the adequacy of the funding to meet constitutional requirements. Moving on from school finance lawsuits, the interview covers school consolidation and related issues of local control. Dennis explains why he started offering budget workshops to school administrators, including the development of software and the use of computers. This interview includes a brief discussion of the 1999-2000 legislation that moved state oversight of community colleges and technical schools (later termed technical colleges) from the Kansas Department of Education to the Kansas Board of Regents.
Highlight -- short excerpt from the interview
Interview of Carolyn Campbell, March 25, 2022
Interviewed by Eric. Sexton
"Mrs. Campbell", as Carolyn Campbell is known around the Statehouse, has experienced an important part of state history in Kansas government. Following her 1991 retirement from Southwestern Bell, she worked for countless numbers of legislators; then used that experience, to become an elected official in her own right -- serving on both local and state school boards. Campbell was the first African American to serve on the Kansas Board of Education. Campbell started her oral history interview with this: "I am a proud product of segregation. I tell that because folks sometimes think, “Oh, that’s Show Moretoo bad,” but I want everybody to know that as a black child in Topeka with the four all-black elementary schools that we had, we got excellent education, and we were told that we could be whatever we wanted to be, and we were valued every day. " This interview covers her experiences as a 12-year member of the Topeka Public Schools Board of Education, and later her eight years on the State Board of Education.
Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview