Please read this entire editorial and be more than an onlooker.
“No amount of condemnation of ‘unelected, activist judges’ by Gov. Sam Brownback and GOP legislative leaders will change the facts, which are evident not only to school administrators, school boards, teachers and parents across the state but also to the judges on the special panel…
“The fundamental problem is that the governor and GOP legislative leaders seem to think that whatever level of support they deign to give schools should suffice, no matter the reality in the classrooms or the mandate in the state constitution. Nor does it work to plead poverty, as state leaders chose to slash taxes in 2012 rather than increase the state’s commitment to schools after the recessionary cuts.
“Nobody thinks school funding levels are best decided by judges. These legal battles have been a huge waste of resources and time, stretching to seven years in the Montoy case and at 5 1/2 years and counting in the Gannon suit.
“But the blame belongs to the governor and Legislature, who’ve calculated that there’s more to be gained politically by screaming about the courts than by fulfilling their constitutional responsibility to fund public schools suitably.
“Kansans, most of whom have never seen a conflict in being conservative and pro-schools, must be more than onlookers if the block-grant challenge or the Gannon decision forces a constitutional showdown, special legislative session or both.”
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/opinion/editorials/article26002543.html