KANSAS CITY (AP) — A teen who became the first patient at a Kansas City hospital to walk while on life support has recently returned home.

Zei was the first Children’s Mercy patient to walk while on ECMO life support. This week she walked out of the front doors of the hospital after more than 450 days, just in time to be home for her birthday. Read more about her powerful journey back home.

Zei Uwadia left Children’s Mercy Hospital on Thursday after being hospitalized for more than a year for unexplained lung failure. Zei will continue to recover at home in Wichita, Kansas.

The now 17-year-old inspired hundreds of thousands of people who watched videos of her walking down the hospital’s halls while on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), an invasive form of life support.

Doctors still don’t know what caused Zei’s lungs to fail, but she’s no longer on ECMO and instead uses a tracheostomy, a tube in her neck that helps her breathe.

Zei says she’s looking forward to having more freedom.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A 26-year-old Kansas woman accused of leaving her two toddlers in a car while she was in a bar pleaded with a judge to not take her children away from her while acknowledging that she made a mistake.

Tiara Dillon of Lawrence was charged Thursday with two felony counts of aggravated child endangerment and a misdemeanor count of operating a vehicle under the influence.

Judge James George ordered Dillon to have no contact with her children, who are 2 and 3.

Before judge George issued the no-contact order Dillon repeatedly asked him not to take her children and said she never meant to hurt her children.

Dillon was arrested early Wednesday after allegedly leaving her two children unattended in a vehicle at the Playerz Sports Bar in Lawrence bar on a dangerously cold night.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican legislators in Kansas expect to push forward this week with an income tax relief proposal in defiance of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s call for lawmakers to avoid adjusting state tax laws this year.

A Senate committee is set to open hearings Tuesday and could vote Thursday on a bill aimed at preventing individuals and corporations from paying more to the state because of changes in federal income tax laws at the end of 2017. Top Republicans in the GOP-dominated Legislature have made tax relief a priority.

Republicans argue Kansas is receiving an unanticipated revenue “windfall” because its income tax laws are tied to the federal tax code. While the changes championed by President Donald Trump cut rates, they also included provisions that could keep many residents from claiming itemized deductions on their state tax forms.

GOP leaders also are pushing to have their proposed changes apply retroactively, so people benefit when filing their taxes this spring for 2018. The Kansas Department of Revenue told legislators Monday that taxpayers would save $192 million during the fiscal year that begins July 1.

“Whose money is it? It’s the taxpayers’ money,” said Sen. Larry Alley, a Winfield Republican and member of the special Senate committee reviewing the legislation. “Let the individuals and corporations get that money back that was intended for them.”

The GOP’s push sets up a political confrontation with Kelly, whose top priorities are increasing spending on public schools and expanding the state’s Medicaid health coverage for the needy.

Under the Senate proposal, the state’s revenue loss — and taxpayers’ savings — would be far higher during the next budget year because of refunds of taxes already paid for 2018. The bill would reduce state revenues by $113 million in the fiscal year that begins in July 2020.

“The question is: Can we afford it at this point in time?” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat. “You have to put it in the context of the entire budget.”

Kelly won the governor’s race last year by running againstformer GOP Gov. Sam Brownback’s unpopular fiscal policies. Brownback successfully pushed legislators to slash state income taxes in 2012 and 2013, and most of them were reversed in 2017 after persistent budget woes.

State officials have struggled to calculate the effects of the federal tax changes. Last summer, legislative researchers projected $146 million in additional revenues during the next budget year, but Democrats have been skeptical.

“This is not the time to be making any substantial changes in our tax structure,” Kelly said during a news conference last week. “We have no idea if there’s a windfall.”

But Kelly also has consistently refused to say whether she would veto a tax relief bill. Spokeswoman Ashley All said Monday only that Kelly would review any bill to “determine if it’s in the best interests of the state.”

The bill before the Senate committee would allow Kansas taxpayers to claim itemized deductions on their state income tax forms even if they don’t itemize on their federal tax forms.

The federal standard deductions have increased, discouraging taxpayers from itemizing. But the state’s standard deductions aren’t changing — a hit for some taxpayers who formerly itemized on their federal forms. Their savings would average about $60 million a year.

The bill also would make changes to keep Kansas from taxing foreign income earned by individuals and corporation — saving them $137 million during the next budget year, when they could claim refunds on their 2018 taxes, but dropping to less $60 million a year after that. Republicans argue that without such changes, businesses would be encouraged to leave the state for a more favorable tax climate elsewhere.

“I have a sense of urgency,” said Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican and chairwoman of the special tax committee.

She noted that individuals are preparing to file returns and added, “Businesses certainly need certainty.”

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By STEPHAN BISAHA

A hot job market and the increasing cost of tuition have slowed the growth in the number of Kansans earning a college education nearly to a halt. Educators are worried that will worsen shortages of high-skilled workers and impede prosperity long term. 

“It is concerning,” said Donna Ginther, an economist at the University of Kansas. “Having these types of degrees and certificates are very important for the future of economic growth in the state and the country.” 

Kansas’ public colleges and universities granted 40,856 undergraduate degrees and certificates last year, according to the latest progress report from the Kansas Board of Regents. That’s virtually the same as five years ago and well short of the state’s goals. 

Kansas is nine years into the 10-year “Foresight 2020” plan designed to increase the number of Kansans getting post-secondary education and to better align state college and university programs with economic needs. 

The Regents have found some success, particularly in technical education. 

An initiative started in 2012 greatly increased the number of Kansans earning college credit before they graduated from high school. More than 10,000 students participated last year. And many of those students have continued technical education programs after high school, contributing to the growth of technical colleges by more than a third from 2012 to 2017. 

Yet most of the state’s other colleges and universities have gone the other direction. 

The headcount at community colleges shrank by 12 percent between 2012 and 2017. State universities grew less than half of a percent, with many seeing declines. 

There are likely not enough students currently enrolled for the main objective in Foresight 2020 — more than 53,000 degrees and certificates earned by the end of this decade — to be achieved. 

Much of the declining enrollment at Kansas colleges and universities is among white students. Their enrollment numbers have dropped 12 percent since 2010, according to data in the Foresight 2020 progress report. Enrollment by Hispanic students has grown the most, by more than 42 percent. 

The progress report blames several factors outside of the Regents’ control, including the Kansas economy. The low unemployment rate means Kansans are able to find jobs without a college degree. 

In the early days of the recovery from the 2008 recession, college enrollment increased in Kansas as elsewhere. Unemployed Americans decided to go back to college instead of hunting for non-existent jobs. 

The reverse was true as the economy continued to improve. In 2013, enrollment in Kansas colleges plunged as the Kansas unemployment rate hit 5.3 percent. 

But while more Kansans are now employed, many remain shut out of high-skill, high-paying occupations that offer a pathway to the middle class. 

“A high school education is not going to cut for economic prosperity,” Ginther said. 

Ginther and others also worry that high-skill industries such as aerospace manufacturing that Kansas is trying to foster will experience increasing workforce shortages without more Kansans completing a college education. 

Rising tuition has also driven students away from Kansas schools. 

Students have born more of the cost of their education at public universities as the state repeatedly cut over the past decade. 

Higher tuition could be an outsized barrier for poorer students. The number of Pell Grant recipients at Kansas universities, students receiving grant money for college from the federal government, has been declining since 2015. 

Studies have shown a link between increasing tuition and decreasing enrollment, though there are disputes over the size of the effect. What’s indisputable is the massive leap in cost colleges have seen over the years. At Kansas State University, the sticker price for a semester has increased 57 percent over the last ten years. 

“When I started at K-State in the late ‘60s I paid out-of-state tuition and was able to work my way through the university with summer jobs and employment through the school year,” said Pat Bosco, the vice president for student life at Kansas State University. “That’s no longer the case now.” 

Stephan Bisaha reports on education for the Kansas News Service.  Follow him on @SteveBisaha.

By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN

Most Kansas students graduate high school nowadays. Yet many still struggle with the skills of reading and writing.

Now a task force of educators, parents and lawmakers hopes to help close that gap.

Over the past half year, the Dyslexia Task Force put together recommendations and this month handed them off to the Kansas State Board of Education.

The group’s work is well worth paying attention to. It could change reading instruction for every public school student in the state.

The goal? Catching a wide range of struggling readers and spellers earlier on.

Signs of dyslexia according to research at Yale University
It extends far beyond dyslexia — though even that, some researchers say, is far more common than parents and teachers realized in the past.

Ugh, English is hard.

Though, bough, cough, tough.

You’ve probably reflected on the woes of English spelling before. Usually we just throw up our hands. Or shrug. Or jokingly congratulate ourselves on having the strangest writing system in the world, then move on.

That’s not acceptable to teachers who specialize in instruction for children with dyslexia.

Unbeknownst to many of us, much of the “weirdness” does follow patterns. (English professor Anne Curzan has this enjoyable column to that point.)

Angie Schreiber began learning these nitty-gritty guidelines after finding out her son had dyslexia. Now she runs an Emporia private school that teaches students like him.

“English is 80 to 85 percent regular,” she argues. “If we teach to the regularity and not use the irregularities as an excuse, we can teach our kids to read, write and spell.”

A couple examples:

Check out the “ie” words in the photo below. Shield, tie, brief, die, and so on.

This is a photo of a teacher’s laptop while her eighth-grade student with dyslexia practiced reading them aloud. It helped him to recall that “ie” often sounds like an “i” at the end of a word, but like an “e” if it’s in the middle.

And what about spelling “back”? What’s that “c” doing before the “k”? Schreiber explains that English usually uses “ck” at the end of a one-syllable word after a short vowel. Hence “back” and “truck” get a “ck” that “bank” and “think” don’t.

Solution to the big ole reading gap?

Teaching such guidelines are one part of “structured literacy,” an approach to reading instruction that may soon be required of every elementary school in Kansas.

Some people swear by it. Others roll their eyes.

The disagreement is part of “the reading wars” — a decades-long and nationwide rift in the sphere of literacy education.

How can there be so much to debate about teaching kids to read? Well, because so many people worry we still haven’t figured it out.

Even the optimism around No Child Left Behind waxed and waned. Nearly two decades later, Americans continue to enter adulthood without mastering this vital skill.

Though almost 90 percent of Kansas students graduate high school, a third of the state’s high-schoolers score below grade level on English tests. More than two-thirds test below the higher proficiency bar that Kansas uses for federal accountability.

Structured literacy teachers argue they know how to resolve a big chunk of that reading gap.

They’re not saying all those children have dyslexia — they’re saying research shows structured literacy improves reading and spelling across the board.

Did you miss the Kansas News Service’s feature on dyslexia?
Plenty of literacy specialists disagree (hence the “reading wars”). Sometimes, experts on either side even cite the same research as showing totally different things.

Rethinking classrooms and college

So, back to the dyslexia task force’s decision this month.

Pending approval from the Kansas State Board of Education, the group wants to make structured literacy part of the college coursework required to teach in this state. To get their licenses, many teachers would need to pass a test that shows they understand and can teach in depth things like “phonemic awareness” — which involves recognizing and breaking down individual sounds in words.

Schools would need to offer training for teachers already in the field and incorporate structured literacy into general reading instruction for all students.

Read a draft of the task force’s recommendations.
Reports from state-appointed panels don’t always lead anywhere. Some end up looking more like political theater than anything else. Don’t expect that fate for this one.

“This, obviously, is not going to be one of those reports that sits on a shelf someplace,” said retired superintendent Jim Porter. “It’s going to get the attention it deserves.”

Porter chaired the task force and, until recently, the state board.

Adopting structured literacy would add Kansas to a national wave of states passing laws and policies meant to better serve children with dyslexia.

Even among those states, though, a radio documentary by APM Reports suggests implementation has proven tricky.

The state board of education may vote on the task force’s recommendations in the coming weeks or months. Rolling out new standards in thousands of schools and training a critical mass of teachers will take longer.

“I’m worried that it’s going to be a 10-year process,” says Christina Middleton, a Lenexa mother whose son wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia till the summer before fifth grade.

That’s when she took him to Children’s Mercy Hospital for tests, got a diagnosis and signed him up for private instruction in structured literacy.

Half a dozen reading programs had failed him before that point, she says. Now in high school, he reads at grade level.

Teaching schools wanted a seat at the table

Colleges of education may well ask the state board to rein in some of the recommendations. They worry Kansas is on the brink of sweeping changes that bypassed them.

The sole professor on the dyslexia task force was psychologist David Hurford, who founded a center focused on researching dyslexia and teaching children who struggle with reading.

The dyslexia task force membership
“There is a voice missing,” Ken Weaver, dean of the Emporia State Teachers College, wrote in an email this week. “That is the literacy faculty from all the Regents universities.”

Those professors likely would have expressed concern that task force members were misunderstanding the thrust of decades of research on reading education. Or underestimating the extent of phonics and related instruction already taking place in Kansas schools.

But from the point of view of parents who say schools failed their children year after year, the status quo just hasn’t been working.

Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ.