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Funkhouser Backs Down from Vouchers

By Maria Carter

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-570798.mp3

Kansas City, MO – Both candidates for Kansas City Mayor showed up outside Central High School yesterday to talk about their positions on education. KCUR's Maria Carter reports.

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Former City Auditor Mark Funkhouser reversed his earlier support for school vouchers. Funkhousers says he's looked into the matter further and calls his former position a mistake. He says what's unchanged is that as mayor he wants to work with the school district, but notes that would be impossible to do if he was looking at vouchers.

Funkhouser: I can't be this helpful, cooperative partner with the school district that I want to be, if I embrace something that they find reprehensible.

His opponent Alvin Brooks says he has always opposed school vouchers.

Brooks: Vouchers end up siphoning off kids whose families can afford to put money with that voucher and send them to a private or parochial school, but you leave behind. And then you compound the problem.

Funkhouser and Brooks say they would both hold education summits if elected. Funkhouser says his would be with the Kansas City Missouri School district and look at making changed recommended in a recent view. Brooks would take a broader approach inviting all school districts in the city. Maria Carter, KCUR News.

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