Heather’s walking to Topeka March 28-31!

Many of you first met us last March when Game On member Heather Ousley walked the 60 miles from Kansas City to Topeka to voice opposition to the policies and priorities of many in our legislature. This session we have seen continued underfunding of our schools. We have a court decision to fix unconstitutional inequities in our school funding which has been met by reluctance and a poisonous bill bundling funding with toxic education policy. Many legislators have shown us their relief over the Gannon remand of the adequacy issues, which they see as granting them the ability to refuse to restore funding levels without consequences for the foreseeable future.

We have seen bills to move local municipal and school board elections to the fall even though municipalities, school boards and their patrons are opposing them, bills to promote neo-charters and corporate tax scholarships, though the public schools will continue to serve the vast majority of Kansans children. We see legislators shake their heads at constituents instead of promising to work for them in Topeka, and an ongoing promotion of ALEC bills which stand to help those who want to make money off of public school funding and those who don’t want to share the responsibility of funding our schools instead of helping the students of Kansas. In the meantime, we have seen no restoration of the cuts our children saw during the recession. In different districts around the state we still have increased class sizes, no funds for library books, shortened school years, eliminated staff and programs, and increased fees for families. Every year that passes without the restoration of funding is a year our students are losing the opportunity to reach their full potentials.

We need our legislature to listen to us and give the children of Kansas the education they need. So, Heather and several other Game On members will walk to Topeka. We ask you to help us share this story on social media. Watch for more information soon!