In addition to our earlier post mentioning Sen. Masterson’s focus on cutting spending rather than looking at tax policy, we note “Gov. Sam Brownback and legislative leaders approved less than half of the $1.1 million in additional funding requested by eight school districts [at a meeting last week for requests from the block grant extraordinary needs fund]. Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Andover – who in championing the block grants had said that ‘no district under this plan should have to cut a planned expenditure’ – urged State Finance Council members Tuesday to be cautious about approving funding requests. ‘If you attempt to use those funds for the purpose of fixing all of the garbage from the old system, then that’s – I’m not sure where that train gets off,’ he said. But Mike Sanders, superintendent of the Skyline district in Pratt, told the council that his district is ‘pretty much running on fumes.'”

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/now-consider-this/article20380998.html