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MONDAY • FEBRUARY 2 • 2015
Classroom innovation transforms students
KU seeks funds for vaccine institute University asks Legislature for $5 million to help boost innovative research By Sara Shepherd Twitter: @saramarieshep
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
WEST MIDDLE SCHOOL EIGHTH-GRADERS Jake Viscomi, left, and Lexi Carter participate in a table-team challenge to build the tallest structure in their class out of marshmallows, string, spaghetti and tape. The competition was part of an Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, class program that helps students fulfill their hopes of succeeding in college.
Middle schoolers taught ‘individual determination’ “
By Elliot Hughes
Twitter: @elliothughes12
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bout 10 days ago, Carissa Hanschu handed out sheets of paper in her first period class at West Middle School. On the papers were numbers that compared each student’s progress from his or her last semester in seventh grade to their first semester in eighth grade. With some prodding, three students stood and remarked on their progress. One went from a D to an A in social studies. Another turned an F in English into a B. Malachi Daniels said his D-
I think that AVID has helped me in the way of learning, taking notes and kind of putting that into my head so that we know what to do on tests.”
— William MacArthur, West Middle School student turned-A in math was thanks to the note-taking format he learned in Hanschu’s class, an elective course that gathers students with middling grades and teaches them organizational and study skills. The class, called Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, is part of a program that
existed at the high school level for three years but was made available to eighth-graders for the first time this year. The kinds of results on display in Hanschu’s class on Jan. 23 are coming in from the district’s other three middle schools as well.
As Kansas University pharmaceutical chemistry professor Wendy Picking knows firsthand, the process of getting a vaccine or drug from science lab to people and animals in need is long, costly and involves many entities. If the process falls off at any step, even amazing scientific discoveries might wither in a lab instead of being developed and manufactured into doses that can prevent or combat disease. Picking has been reKANSAS UNIVERSITY searching shigella since 1993 and says there’s still years to go before a vaccine for it could save lives. Bringing entities together to boost research and continuity for work like Picking’s is the goal of the proposed Kansas University Drug and Vaccine Discovery Institute. Getting $5 million to establish and grow the Institute is one of KU’s top three priorities for the 2015 Legislative session, and one the university says is critical to maintain its reputation as a “global power” in
Please see STUDENTS, page 5A
Please see VACCINE, page 2A
Governor’s plan leaves end of Kansas income taxes uncertain By John Hanna Associated Press
Topeka — Gov. Sam Brownback and his top aides can’t predict when Kansas will meet his stated goal of eliminating income taxes, now that he has slowed the implementation of promised reductions to stave off predicted budget cuts. The Republican governor
promised in his annual of future reductions, and State of the State address allow future governors that Kansas will continue and lawmakers to delay a “march to zero” income cuts. taxes even if some critics The governor and “consider this course too many of his allies conbold.” But his new tax tend he’s being practiproposals abandon most LEGISLATURE cal in the face of budget of the cuts in personal inproblems that arose afcome tax rates scheduled for the ter legislators aggressively cut next three years, divert revenues personal income taxes at his to a rainy day budget fund ahead urging in 2012 and 2013 to boost
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the economy. The state is facing predicted shortfalls totaling more than $710 million in the current budget and the one for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. After dropping its top personal income tax rate 29 percent over three years, the state won’t reduce it again for at least four years. The lowest rate, which declined 23 percent during the same period, to 2.7 percent, would de-
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cline only to 2.66 percent for 2016. Brownback’s administration isn’t projecting when Kansas will end income taxes, with Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan saying there are too many variables, particularly future revenue growth. But Jeff Glendening, state director of Americans for Prosperity, the anti-tax, small-government Please see TAXES, page 2A
Spelling champs Two Lawrence middle school students won first place and runner-up in the Douglas County Spelling Bee on Saturday at Southwest Middle. Page 3A
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Vol.157/No.33 18 pages