“Finding the revenue to pass a two-year budget should not be lawmakers’ only concern. Back home in their districts, many schools are suffering serious consequences from the recently approved block-grant bill, which repealed the two-decade-old school-finance formula. Some are ending the semester early, cutting programs, raising fees or a combination. The superintendent of the Skyline district in Pratt County even resigned Wednesday to save the district his $81,000 salary, on top of $477,000 in other personnel cutbacks.
“And more cuts could be coming, as the Senate Ways and Means Committee advanced legislation that would counter falling oil-and-gas valuations by reducing the promised block-grant funding by $30.5 million. Meanwhile, a three-judge panel in Topeka is considering school districts’ request to overturn the block-grant bill, as it continues to work through the ongoing school-finance case testing the constitutionality of state K-12 funding generally.
“Stressing school budgets, robbing the highway fund, borrowing cash to prop up the pension system – the responsibility for all of it falls on state leaders. Between now and the final gavel, more of them will need to recognize that doing what’s right and fair for the state, at least this time, will not be fun.”
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/opinion/editorials/article21126390.html