We’re connecting the dots again today. The courts have been ordering the state to increase funding for schools. Our governor and legislature would currently prefer to lower taxes, even if it results in a decreased revenue stream, and fund schools according to what we can afford under that scenario. But the courts are holding them to the constitutional requirement that they provide suitable funding for public education (9 times so far). They’re frustrated by that and would like to change how justices are selected. (They changed how appeals court judges are selected last year.) Bills to change judicial selection are directly related to school funding.

“‘Governor Brownback,” [former Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tim] Owens said, ‘pointed his finger at me and said, ‘Tim, why can’t you go along with us on this judicial selection issue and let us change the way we select judges so we can get judges who will vote the way we want them to?’”

Read more here: http://cjonline.com/news/state/2015-02-09/ex-senator-tim-owens-ideology-drives-sam-brownbacks-push-judicial-reform