The hearing for SB 71 has been moved, but the threat remains.
“Prompted by the court ruling, the Legislature agreed last session to give schools an additional $130 million in equalization funds, which was supposed to make up for the formula shortfall. But as it turned out, the calculation was underestimated by about $39 million. Senate Bill 71 aims to resolve the issue by rewriting the formula, meaning a permanent cut for most school districts.
“Should the bill become law, districts in Johnson County would see a total of $11 million cut from their budgets this year. Shawnee Mission would lose $4.2 million, Blue Valley $3.3 million and Olathe $2.6 million. De Soto, Gardner Edgerton and Spring Hill would see smaller but still significant losses. The Kansas City, Kan., School District would have to make do with about $1 million less…Senate Bill 71 was introduced the same day that five Johnson County school districts learned that voters had resoundingly approved requests to increase local funding from 31 to 33 percent of their general funds…If passed, the Senate bill would wipe out most or all of the gains that the school districts will receive by continuing their local funding increases. It would force them to either make more cuts or break faith with voters by raising mill levies.”
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article8531321.html#storylink=cpy
Here are the email addresses for the members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee so that you can contact them and tell them you oppose SB 71 and urge them to vote NO on current year cuts to your school’s funding.
Ty.Masterson@senate.ks.gov, jim.denning@senate.ks.gov, laura.kelly@senate.ks.gov, tom.arpke@senate.ks.gov, steve.fitzgerald@senate.ks.gov, Dan.Kerschen@senate.ks.gov, Jeff.Melcher@senate.ks.gov, Michael.ODonnell@senate.ks.gov, Larry.Powell@senate.ks.gov, Caryn.Tyson@senate.ks.gov