Schools Kansas

If they know anything, person after person here declares, they know this: God created them. Created all mankind. As for the talk about man evolving from tree-swinging apes? A hoax, they scoff--and a cruel one at that. The biblical creation story is bedrock belief for many in this blue-collar prairie town. Yet even as they call evolution a fraud, residents by and large say they do not object to their children studying it in school. Sure, there are caveats.

Re "High Cost for Low Grades," May 18: The lesson of the Kansas City experiment is that well-intentioned "experts" had no idea what they were doing. The judge didn't know what he was doing. The school officials who bought all the computers and software, the planetarium, the pool, the violin lessons, etc. didn't know what they were doing. To this day, the superintendent says that the schools are fine--it's the tests that are wrong. The taxpayers who anted up $2 billion no doubt hoped that the experts who were spending their money were on the right track.

Re "High Cost for Low Grades," May 18: The lesson of the Kansas City experiment is that well-intentioned "experts" had no idea what they were doing. The judge didn't know what he was doing. The school officials who bought all the computers and software, the planetarium, the pool, the violin lessons, etc. didn't know what they were doing. To this day, the superintendent says that the schools are fine--it's the tests that are wrong. The taxpayers who anted up $2 billion no doubt hoped that the experts who were spending their money were on the right track.

If they know anything, person after person here declares, they know this: God created them. Created all mankind. As for the talk about man evolving from tree-swinging apes? A hoax, they scoff--and a cruel one at that. The biblical creation story is bedrock belief for many in this blue-collar prairie town. Yet even as they call evolution a fraud, residents by and large say they do not object to their children studying it in school. Sure, there are caveats.

An appellate court overturned an income tax surcharge but upheld a property tax increase levied to pay for the integration of public schools in Kansas City. The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals held that U.S. District Judge Russell G. Clark had the authority to raise property taxes but not to enact the surcharge. State officials and others were happy the income tax surcharge was thrown out, but Missouri Gov.

Father Edward P. Manhard, 103, believed to be the oldest Jesuit in the world and the oldest Roman Catholic priest in the United States. Born in 1898, the grandson of Swiss immigrants, Manhard joined the Society of Jesus, or Jesuit Order, in 1919. He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Saint Louis University in 1925 and a master's degree a year later. He taught on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota before becoming a Navy chaplain during World War II.

People in at least 12 states do not have to wait for President Bush and Congress to get together on raising taxes. They will begin paying higher state taxes or fees today. Other new laws taking effect today include a "scarlet letter" measure in Iowa requiring repeat drunk-driving offenders to get special license plates and laws in three states allowing the suspension of driver's licenses for drug-use offenses unrelated to driving.

The inquiry hit just as Cal State Northridge men's basketball Coach Pete Cassidy was gaining momentum in an attempt to tactfully explain how not to embarrass an obviously overmatched opponent. "I didn't know what to do," he said. "We played zone, we substituted freely and played everyone that we could play." Then the stumper: "Well, then, why do you play Bethany Bible . . . twice?" The coach paused. "That's a good question," Cassidy said.

The more Oregon wins the more it keeps dropping in the BCS standings. The Ducks, who debuted at No. 3 last week despite being No. 2 in both college football polls, dropped to No. 4 on Sunday behind Alabama, Florida, and Kansas State. How bad a week did Oregon have? Actually, the Ducks blitzed Arizona State, 43-21, last Thursday night in a game that was much more lopsided than the final score. Oregon led 43-7 in the second quarter before easing off the gas. Oregon is still No. 2 in the two polls used in the BCS formula: the USA Today coaches' poll and the Harris Interactive index.

The Kansas Jayhawks weren't expecting much of a game from Cincinnati, which finished 2-8-1 last season. But they got all they could handle, needing a fumble recovery late in the game to pull out a 23-18 nonconference victory Saturday at Lawrence, Kan. Eric Richards' third long field goal, a 42-yarder with 7:10 remaining, pulled Cincinnati into a 16-16 tie.

Teachers and students reacted enthusiastically Monday to the debut of a commercial daily television news program for teen-agers at Gahr High School in Cerritos. Whittle Communications provided 91 television monitors, a satellite dish and videocassette recorder to the school as part of a nationwide test of "Channel One," a 12-minute news program. The five-week pilot program also is being tested at high schools in Kansas, Michigan and Tennessee.