Immigration Thought Partners
Peggy Ruebke: The importance of aligning our words and actions
Reynaldo Mesa: ‘I believe we can fix it, and we choose not to.’
Alba Gutierrez-Ortiz: Let’s talk about keeping families safe
Marty Hillard: Listening to the people ‘directly affected’
Jim Terrones: Hoping to finally see ‘immigration reform’
Mark Lowry on challenges: ‘This country is built on diversity’
Clemente Bobadilla-Reyes: An immigrant’s view
Dave Sotelo: Sharing a ‘long and difficult’ immigration journey
Josey Hammer: Bridge divides with stories of experience
Inas Younis: America is ‘proving something to the world’
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More Stories
Replacing the work of the irreplaceable Broderick Crawford in KCK
When A. Glenn Brady became pastor of The New Bethel Church in the Northeast neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas, in 2009, he had a vision of a congregation that did more than just meet for worship on Sundays. He imagined a church that would work to improve the quality of life for the people living in the surrounding community. “My position is not just to have…
Will a ‘demographic cliff’ threaten universities, too?
It’s not just K-12 schools that could be affected by the Kansas baby bust. “We’re probably going to have less people in that pipeline,” says Jeremy Hill, director of Wichita State University’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research, and “that’s going to put a lot of pressure on colleges and the workforce.” Indeed, a demographic “cliff” is coming for Kansas colleges and universities, Kansas Board…
Fast facts and where The Journal is reporting from
When the bough breaks In the 2021-22 school year, Kansas’ K-12 schools had an average daily attendance of about 405,000 students. Just four years earlier, before COVID arrived, an average of 445,000 students filled those same school buildings. Fruitful Opportunities In the 19th century, Kansas grew more grapes than almost any other state in the country. It was also one of the nation’s largest wine producers.…
A baby bust hits Kansas, bringing tough choices for Kansas school districts
Kansas is in the midst of a baby bust. Numbers released in May by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment tell the plain story: In 2022, there were 34,476 live births – a slight decrease from 34,697 births the year before, but a huge drop from the nearly 42,000 new Kansans born in 2008 amidst the Great Recession. Put it in a different context –…
Why The Journal needs your support now
The Journal launched its end-of-the-year fundraising campaign yesterday. You’ll be seeing mentions of it on this site. For our newsletter subscribers, it means you’ll be getting a few more emails than you usually get from us. (The good news is that once you donate, we take you off the emails!) But I wanted to take a moment and explain in a little more detail about why your…
Homestead property tax refunds ‘here for us to take advantage of’
Editor’s note: This article was produced by The Active Age as part of the Wichita Journalism Collaborative, which includes the KLC Journal and 10 other media organizations and community groups. Property tax refund options for older homeowners are growing thanks to new state and local programs. But homeowners must know about the programs and fill out the correct paperwork to take advantage of them. This year marked the rollout of Kansas’ property tax “freeze’’ for qualifying homeowners. Called…
