Key Kansas school board endorsements announced tonight

The MAINstream Coalition’s political action committee is scheduled to announce its endorsements for the Kansas Board of Education tonight at a rally in Johnson County.

This is important because MAINstream and its political arm, MAIN*PAC, are the oldest and, perhaps best organized of the many groups campaigning against the state’s anti-evolution, anti-science, anti-anybody-but-our-church-buddies Board of Education. MAINstream is based in the Kansas City suburb of Johnson County, which was made famous by Thomas Frank’s What’s The Matter With Kansas.

The event is set for 7 p.m. at the Shawnee Civic Center, 13817 Johnson Drive, in Shawnee. This is the latest in a series of statewide rallies entitled, “Take Back Kansas: How We Can Move Kansas Back to the Middle, and Why It Matters.”

The rallies kicked off with a standing-room-only crowd in Lawrence earlier this year.

"People are tired of seeing religion insinuated into the science and health curricula and are increasingly concerned about the undermining of our public education system,” Boo Tyson, the executive director of the MAINstream Coalition, said in a news release. “The people do have the power to change the situation, and we want to help them use it."

Discussions and speeches will also highlight the night.

• Sue Gamble, a Republican member of the state board, will discuss her front-row perspective on the board.

• A panel will examine public education funding, the separation of religion and government, and the state board. The panelists are Kathy Cook of Kansas Families United for Public Education, Dick Morrissey of the Kansas Alliance for Education, Gary Brunk of Kansas Action for Children and Tyson.

• Mary O'Halloran, political activist and media consultant, will emcee.
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• University of Kansas social welfare professor Lori Messinger will give tips on how to speak out and organize to effect change.