“Voters must be baffled by competing claims regarding the funding of K-12 public schools in Kansas. The Brownback administration says it is going up; most everybody else says it is going down.
“Does the truth lie somewhere in the middle? We simply would say: No.
“Gov. Sam Brownback and the conservative lawmakers who approved austere budgets in an attempt to balance the effects caused by massive cuts in personal and business income tax don’t like to talk about base state aid per pupil, which has dropped 12.5 percent since 2009.
“Per-pupil spending has declined 14.6 percent between 2009 and today. Kansas has the fifth largest percentage cut in public school funding in that time. Classrooms have gotten bigger. At-risk funding is being diverted. There is less training for teachers. Extracurricular activities and programs are disappearing, as are arts, music and athletics. Cash reserves are being depleted.
“Worst of all, the situation will deteriorate even further if the irresponsible tax cuts continue. Everybody agrees with that assessment except for Brownback, his conservative bloc of legislators, and fellow starve-public-education-until-we-get-vouchers-for-private-schools cronies.
“In the name of education, and to ensure our children do not continue falling victim to the reckless experiment of our governor, you need to discover the truth. Go and ask questions; do not rely on misleading advertising spots put out by Brownback, the Koch brothers or the Kansas Policy Institute. The sun is not shining brightly on Kansas schools.”