ANONYMOUS: complains about paperless office trends at the Kansas Department of Education in Topeka

In reference to the the Kansas State Department of Education: “YOUR PAPERLESS SERVICES ARE KILLING ANOTHER elder Kansan from overseas with disabilities FACING OFF WITH A PAPERLESS OFFICE”

EXPLANATION
This letter(from anonymous below) is now shared by Kevin Stoda, who had written about similar problems that elderly and handicapped Kansanas face in the wake of growingly intransigent PAPERLESS UNIVERSITIES in America. Mr. Stoda had condemned some paperless trends in America in his essay below to the Chronicle of Higher Education and the University of Kansas.[1] The author (anonymous below) feels that the KSDE operates similarly.
https://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/why-the-university-of-kansas-and-other-universities-which-try-to-go-paperless-are-making-it-hard-for-older-and-disabled-students-to-study/
The anonymous writer (below) saw Mr. Stoda’s condemnation of the paperless administrative trends at another Kansas institution earlier this week on the internet.
The anonymous author then relayed this (now--edited) letter to Mr. Stoda.
Note: “Dear Mr. Stoda, you have the write to print the contents but not the names in this letter. I want your readers to know that you are not facing an isolated case. This hyper-focusedness on paperless institutions is leading to reckless irresponsibility, kind of like wikipedia.” --ANONYMOUS

Dear Kansas State Department of Education,

First of all, due to MY various disabilities etc. I have to ask that you at the KSDE review and vet how you have handled my renewal of state teaching certification. I feel that part of the roblem has been that the paperless goals of your institution are not realistic and are causing you and users undue stress.
This is likely the reason that, until now, I have not received a reply to my February appeal although I have in good faith spent nearly $2700 dollars trying to renew my Kansas Teaching Certification since 2008.

Second, please copy and forward this letter to all administrators at KSDE. (I have tried to find the new location of your KSDE emails yesterday before writing you but I had trouble finding the KSDE link--otherwise, I would have written the heads at KSDE all myself.) I have looked all over this web page and I can’t find all the staff addresses at KSDE.
http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=3571
Third, I wrote a letter to you all at KSDE on February 19 and have received no answer. Why was it not responded to?

In addition, I ask you now to read this letter from a “Mr. Kevin Stoda” to the University of Kansas (and the Chronicle of Higher Education). The letter clearly criticizes the paperless office trends in Kansas.--and I conclude that the KSDE paperless network does not serve many of us older or disabled peoples well.

http://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/why-the-university-of-kansas-and-other-universities-which-try-to-go-paperless-are-making-it-hard-for-older-and-disabled-students-to-study/


Please, read that weblink above--and also pass it on to your policy teams and vetting committees. The author, Mr. Stoda, wrote his article with great physical pains –and due to my arthritis etc. I feel equally warn out and hurting as I type you. Both the KSDE and the University of Kansas seem to caus us older teachers the same stress.
For example, in my case, I had applied apply fully to your office and the KSDE in 2008 and 2009 to have my records and credentials in the KEEB online job search profile or data base. By 2010, a new platform was being used and I could no longer find my old data. I had to refill out all the forms in the new platform. Now, in 2011, another new job platfrom has apparently taken over at the KSDE—and I do not yet know how to update my old profile. This continually changin of platforms or weblinks is just not fair to an aging teaching candidate such as myself—nor is it fair to anyone else. Why do you keep changing these job sites? 9I have written emails asking for hel in accessing and reloading my credentials—to no avail.)
http://www.kansasteachingjobs.com/

Fourth, from the KSDE email below, it sounds like the KSDE paperless system is malfunctioning. Why have I never received a proper letter from the KSDE here in Asia, where I have worked for ten years? (You have had for 8 months my updated work address in the local elementary school.) I am sure that the delay is partially because your offices have become to dependent on paperless excuses—like disappearing documents and web pages. In summary, during the last 8 months, I have never received any of these messages (that you wrote below in a recent) here in China at my postal address.

Fifth and finally, at an additional cost of over 1500 dollars I flew to Kansas in January 2011in order to finally obtain the long-awaited hard-copy of my KSDE Teacher Certification. (I made sure that my finger prints were taken at a local police station. Then I mailed it off to the KBI as per your instructions with the necessary 50 dollar check.)
Now, it is April 2011—three years after I began my KSDE teacher renewal. Due to the terrible system that KSDE built up in recent decades, I do not foresee you getting my certification in my hands till the end of the year.

Yours,
Anonymous

p.s. I am also currently a bit homesick--but this paperless office of yours is not helping me--deleting my profile on your job search was was even more painful.

________________________________________
From: XXXX @ksde.org>
To: Anonymous
Sent: April XX 2011
Subject: KSDE Renewal
Dear Mr. Anonymous-RENEWAL Applicant,

There are two separate issues regarding your application. The first is that you submitted your original application on 07/16/2010. We are only able to hold onto an application up to six months before it has to be purged from our system. Your application was purged. You will need to reapply for the renewal of your license.

The second [ISSUE], KBI sent a notice back to us with the determination that the fingerprints you submitted were unreadable. They will need a new set of fingerprints. We kept your $50 fee, you will not need to pay this fee again but KBI will need another set of fingerprints. [2]You will need to submit a $39 fee for your application.[3]

According to a letter that you sent us, you may be planning to be back stateside this summer. [4]If this is the case, I recommend that you wait until you are back in the country to resubmit your application and fingerprints.


If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me.[5]


XXXXXX, Licensure Consultant
Kansas State Department of Education
Teacher Education and Licensure
120 SE 10th Avenue, Topeka, KS, 66612



ADDITIONAL NOTES AND COMMENTS

[1] The writer is anonymous, BUT like Mr. Stoda, lives overseas and has had trouble with SEVERAL American institutions THAT ARE NOW “going-overboard-as-so-called paperless institutions).
In this (forwarded) letter, the anonymous author (and claimed victim of KSDE) has been trying to renew his Kansas state teaching certification over the past three years—to no avail. Like Mr. Stoda, the un-named writer has multiple disabilities and is around 50 years old.
[2] It is not clear what the validity of the 50 dollars is or will be. Moreover, what is the purpose of keeping finger prints that KSDE doesn’t like?

[3] Note that KSDE has not mde clear as to what happened to the fee that Anonymous paid in July 2010. Did KSDE simply pocket the applicants money or fee for renewal? It appears so? Moreover what happened to the transcripts that the applicant had paid for and had also sent? Will the applicant have to buy more transcripts? (Why were not the transcripts simply mailed back to the applicant?)

Why wasn’t the applicant notified in February at his/her China address before the purge in February 2011? Since the applicant had just flown in January to the USA wouldn’t it have been appropriate to flag anonymous with at least an email? or provide an extension based upon extenuating circumstances?

[4] When was the letter received/ sent? It is not clear. If it is a September or February letter why wan’t it answered sooner. Not even an email had been sent out by KSDE.

[5] No apology is made for failing to respond to earlier letters is made—suggesting that the paperless workplace, i.e. KSDE in Topeka, is understaffed or.