By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Kansans Can Success Tour continues and the goals of the tour are to check on the same sorts of questions that were asked when Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson got the job six years ago.
"We're really, right now, in the data collection part of this," Watson said. "Then, we'll turn that data over to a combination of our researchers, the researchers at the MidAmerica Regional Education Lab in Denver, Colorado and Kansas State University."
Part of the difference is in how well schools are funded compared to what they were six years ago.
"We're just getting to the full effect of the historic legislation that put more money into K-12 schools," Watson said. "COVID interrupted that, not only for one year, but now it's had a tremendous effect for two years."
The idea is to have a game plan once school gets back to fully normal.
"Once we can kind of get on the other side of this, then we can kind of come back to what we were doing and we can intensify that, based upon the input that we're getting from Kansans all across this tour."
The tour was in Hutchinson August 30 and continues, as it wraps up with meetings Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday after the Labor Day holiday.