Dear editor,
Luke Aichele is running for District 9 State Board of Education. I met him last week to see why he is running for the position and what he has to offer. Luke has my support and here is why.
He is a young father of three children — with a high schooler and an elementary student; a successful business owner; and a conservative from McPherson known locally as “Luke the Barber.” He feels the education of our students in Kansas is the most important place to be involved for not only the student’s future, but all our futures. With public schools losing thousands of students and valuable teachers, we need some new voices at the table. Luke knows Washington, D.C. ideas do not match our Kansas values and wants to be the “buffer” between some of the ideology being thrust at our institutions and the local school boards and educators. He is an independent thinker and stands up for what is right, as he demonstrated in his own community and for our entire state when he fought back the Kelly administration’s mandated Covid shutdown for barbers and beauticians. Luke Aichele will not be a rubber stamp.
Luke wants transparency restored — in curriculum, board activity, taxpayer dollars, and data collection. He is a firm believer in the protection of your child’s personal data and feels any data collected should be “opt in only” so parents are in charge. Both school districts and KSDE have said they don’t keep or own that data, so who is keeping it and who is profiting from that data?
Luke will fight for academics to be the focus of education, not the social emotional engineering being pushed on a federal and state level. Mr. Jim Porter, the incumbent, said in a Marion County candidate forum a few weeks ago that social emotional learning takes priority over academics. Our state assessment scores have been declining over the last eight years to where a whopping 72% of our state high school graduates are below grade level and not academically prepared for a job or college ready in math. Science and English Language Arts aren’t much better at 66% and 65% below grade respectively. Those scores reflect too little focus on the basic academics necessary to be successful for the workforce.
Luke Aichele will be a fresh face and a new voice to some big challenges at the education table. Jim Porter, has served for 50 plus years in education, with the last eight years on the state board, and will be in his mid-eighties if he would finish out his term. I thank him for his time and service. However, we need new voices, ideas and solutions at the state level for our rural areas. That weighs heavily in my support for Luke. If we want to help teachers move the performance needle for our kids, we need to do our part. Join in being the change agent our kids deserve on August 2nd! Give Luke Aichele a shot!
