A year ago, John Bacon joined the other conservatives on the Kansas Board of Education in voting for nonbinding guidelines on sex education. While the Board has no power to do anything one way or another, they voted to tell local school boards that they ought to require parents to opt their children into sex ed, rather than letting parents who object to opt out.
It may seem like a small thing, but that difference actually does change how many children will get basic education about matters which could save their lives.
A year later, a new Board is in charge and focusing on the way that kids are treated, not on culture wars. They are debating how to treat special ed kids, and Bacon is complaining:
"Herein lies the problems with guidelines," said John Bacon, an Olathe Republican. "There are no teeth in guidelines."
There are no teeth in much of what the Board does. It sets broad outlines that local boards implement in their own way. As it happens, those broad guidelines tend not to be modified too greatly, even though they could be. That is the power he wields, and Bacon gains nothing by belittling it.
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