“A quick run through the numbers: In the just completed fiscal year 2014, state revenue dropped $688 million from the year before, and Kansas spent $329 million more than it took in. Now, three months into fiscal year 2015, revenue remains below last year’s levels, placing the state on a track to spend more than $650 million above receipts. Except, that cannot happen. The state’s savings account does not have enough money left to cover the difference between rising expenses and falling revenue…
“Other states ask: ‘How can we invest to make our schools the best?’ while in Kansas we try to figure out how to get even more kids into a classroom.
“No area is more important than public education. Kansas has enjoyed excellent schools which have attracted newcomers to the state and kept people here. Yet, in the present environment, schools have had to pull back, and the state’s financial outlook does not leave a way to fix that, or invest and improve.
“Kansans, we’ve allowed ourselves to be placed on a financial path that leads our state backward rather than into the future, a future that belongs to Kansas schoolchildren.”
Duane Goossen
Former Kansas budget director for three Kansas governors