We note the irony in the administration’s recent claims of increasing school funding based on including catchup payments to the underfunded KPERS, while now claiming that despite cutting $41 million in KPERS payments, K-12 education has been left untouched. Will this underfunding continue and be used as a pretext to claim that we simply can’t afford KPERS and will need to gut it altogether? We’re also disturbed by the amount of cuts to programs for children. And we note that this plan is just the first step. The numbers look worse for 2015-16.
“[Budget Director Shawn] Sullivan signaled that changes to school funding, which makes up more than half of the state’s budget, are on the horizon…The state will also sweep into the general fund $14.5 million from the Kansas Endowment for Youth, a fund meant to pay for programs that benefit children in the future…Christie Appelhanz, vice president for public affairs for Kansas Action Children, disagreed, saying the move threatened to ‘decimate early childhood programs in the state of Kansas.’ She noted that the money in the KEY fund is slated for the Children’s Initiatives Fund, which the governor also proposes to sweep of $500,000.
“The Department for Children and Families will also see its budget reduced by about $4 million.
“Annie McKay, executive director of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth, called the governor’s actions Tuesday ‘the latest sign of how unprecedented and unaffordable tax cuts are eroding key investments that make up the economic foundation of our state.’”
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article4382802.html#storylink=cpy