Petition Email to USD 259

To: John Allison
Superintendent USD 259

Wichita KS

RE: Charter School Petition & Narrative

Dear John,

Please accept the attached Petition & Narrative for a new charter school in USD 259. Parts I & II are in the first file attachment. Part III [Narrative] is in the second file attachment.

In January I am retiring from a career at Love Box Company here in Wichita and, since I have grandchildren and an inherited passion for learning the truth, I want to take a shot at doing my part in promoting meaningful school choice as the only way to bring a measure of much needed competition to a state sponsored educational monopoly that is, in the opinion of many who have participated in it as well as many who have studied it, failing our children, our state and our country.

I recall being told, when we were children, by a former Finance Minister of Hungary [who fled his country with his family and was later killed while teaching at Bradley University] that "your education is one of the few things that nobody can ever take away from you, so be certain it is the best you can make it." Dr. Nyaradi was, of course, correct and knew quite well what he was talking about.

I realize there are powerful special interests which are deeply entrenched in an effort to deny "people" any meaningful opportunity to seek their education outside of the "establishment". These same forces

• challenged my parents in the 1960's when they joined with a few other families to start Wichita Collegiate School,
• challenged my wife and I [and others] in the 1980's when we decided to home-school and
• challenged us again in the 1990's when we started Northfield School of the Liberal Arts.

As such, I know these forces will certainly find many "reasons" [conceived and enforced by that same establishment] to procedurally and summarily deny this petition without any review or consideration of its pedagogical or curricular merits. But my mission is not primarily undertaken to reform the establishment ... it is to do what is well within my power to show you [and anyone else who is interested in meaningful progress] that

• there are without doubt other ancient and innovative ways to provide families and children with better educational opportunities than they have today
• if the "establishment" will just get out of the way of those who wish and are reasonably able to pursue them.

I will follow up this email with a call on Monday, November 30, to confirm that it has been received and to be certain it is acceptable in electronic form. If paper is still required, I will drop the executed original by your office immediately.

I realize this is a public matter and am quite comfortable with that. In fact, I have created a blogsite on which the entire application process is being documented as it occurs. In that spirit of complete transparency, I will publish this email as the second posting on the blogsite under the title "Petition Email to USD 259".

I look forward to working with you to show everyone that there are many "people" outside the establishment who can and will improve educational opportunities for the children of Wichita ... if only they are allowed to try.

respectfully,

Bob Love

on behalf of Petitioner

rwlove51@gmail.com

2 Attachments