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Rep. Rhoades continues to dispute Gannon equity funding figures

It looks like those of us who did not yet have children in school or weren’t yet paying attention during the Montoy litigation may get to see how you start with an order to fix school funding, and end up with multiple rounds of litigation ending with a very specific remedy order. “The Legislature faces a July 1 deadline to close funding disparities between school districts. The Department of Education and the nonpartisan Kansas Legislative Research Department have calculated that $129 million is needed to do that. . . Rhoades still disputed that a specific figure has been...
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Schools respond to plan to cut transportation budgets to fund Gannon equity

The current House Appropriations bill that seeks to provide the equity required by the Gannon decision proposes cutting $14 million in transportation aid. “[That proposal] is based on a 2006 Legislative Post Audit study that found school bus costs were overstated because of a flawed reimbursement formula. ‘The transportation formula systematically overestimates the cost of transporting students who live more than 2.5 miles from school,’ Legislative Post Audit wrote this week in a summary of that study. . . But Seaman USD 345 communications director Jeff Zehnder questioned the proposed cut, saying the transportation study was just one section...
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