Ingram's April 2024

BETWEEN THE LINES

Pointed Perspectives & Penetrating Punditry | by Jack Cashill

Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide

Even in the suburban mecca of Johnson County, schools ain’t what they used to be. Whither do you flee when the county to which you fled needs fleeing? This is the uncomfortable question more than a few Johnson County residents find themselves asking. A little background is in order. Many moons ago, when my wife Joan and I moved to Kansas City and started looking for a home, we had one non-negotiable requirement: the house had to be within walking distance of UMKC, where Joan had been hired to teach. Having but one car, we had to reserve it for yours truly should any unknowing fool outside the neigh borhood deign to hire me. What surprised us was how few of Joan’s colleagues lived in our generally affordable and agreeable neighborhood. When we inquired as to why, we got the same cryptic, one-word response over and over again, “Schools.” Over the years, we watched the pattern play out in real time. Our friends would

decline in Johnson County’s most notable asset, indeed the county’s very raison-d’etre , its vaunted “schools.” The test scores coming from the Shawnee Mission School District would seem to back Sullivan up. At Shawnee Mission West, for instance, according to the Kansas Department of Education, only 33 percent of the 10th graders were rated “proficient”— meaning college- and career-ready—in English/Language Arts. For math, that figure was 20 percent. West is hardly an outlier. At Shawnee Mission South, the numbers were 37 percent for English and 30 percent for math. At Shawnee Mission Northwest, 37 percent and 31 percent.

have a child or two, and when the oldest child reached school age, it was time to move. When asked why, we got the same sheepish answer, “Schools.” The destination of choice was inevita bly Johnson County. Our friends had good reason to be embarrassed. For years they had been telling us how the supposedly staid, stuffy, homogenous county to our west offended their hip, inclusive, progres sive values.

At Shawnee Mis- sion East, the his- toric apple of the district’s eye, less than half the stu- dents tested profi cient in math and barely half in ELA. Do the parents know this? I pick on Shaw nee Mission for a reason. Close to the historic heart of Kansas City, it is

Shawnee Mission North teacher Caedran Sullivan has a warning: “Our district,” she says, “is no longer academically focused.”

Like thousands of other Catholics, we spared ourselves this dilemma by sending our kids to parochial schools. These schools are the reason why western Kansas City has remained stable and family-friendly, despite the city’s dysfunctional public school district. What has not remained stable is Johnson County. Many of the Kansas City refugees have refused to assimilate. To make sure everyone knows where they stand, they post yards signs that explain in fulsome detail the things “this house believes in” that the neighbors presumably don’t. If still feeling guilty about abandoning Kansas City, these migrants run for things like school board. A year ago, their newly imported values clashed with indig enous Johnson County values at Shawnee Mission North High School. An advanced placement English teacher, Caedran Sullivan, took to the pages of “The Lion,” an online publication, to say the obvious: “We are being manipulated and intimi dated by a divisive ‘woke’ ideology that is creating a culture of contempt and disrespect.” Sullivan elaborated, “Our district is no longer academi- cally focused.” That lack of focus, alas, has accelerated a

the district Kansas City refugees have found least alien. Olathe? De Soto? Are you kidding? Lately, however, these folks have been taking the Santa Fe Trail to Blue Valley, which, I’m told, is now the district of choice in metro Kansas City. If a district were judged by the sparkle of its buildings, our migrants have found the promised land. If judged by academics, maybe not. As a case in point, students at Blue Valley Southwest, which just opened in 2010, tested at 38 percent proficient in ELA and 36 percent in math. At Blue Valley High, the only high school in the district to test more than 50 percent in anything, less than half the

Jack Cashill Ingram’s Senior Editor P | 816.842.9994 E | Editorial @ Ingrams.com

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Kansas City’s Business Media

April 2024