Well said, Stand Up Blue Valley. Are your neighbors informed enough to see through the spin? If not, educate them.

Sharing from our friends at Stand Up Blue Valley:

Voters in District 11 recently got a mailer from Sen. Jeff Melcher containing a Citizen Survey and Legislative Update. In his mailer (paid for by taxpayers) Melcher repeats much of the misinformation being spread by Brownback and other anti-public-education legislators in his discussion of education funding issues.

He starts with this assertion: “Most Kansans don’t realize that our current education system hasn’t changed much since the 1960’s…” Stand Up Blue Valley wants to remind Melcher and his colleagues in the legislature that in the 1960’s, we didn’t have computers, or CAPS (Blue Valley’s Center for Advanced Professional Studies). We had no English Language Learner program, no Smartboards, and AP classes were just getting started. There was no pre-K in public school, and schools didn’t serve the needs of our special needs children. In fact, in the decade from 1986 to 1996 alone, there was a 34.2% increase in the number of children with disabilities served by public elementary and secondary schools in Kansas. (source: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/98018/) We would heartily disagree that our education system hasn’t changed much since the 1960s. We think it’s changed in many, many ways for the better of our students and families.

Melcher continues with the falsehood that “K-12 funding is at record levels” and “has risen exponentially.” We’ve talked before about that claim (see our post on a report from the Washington Post which tells us that Kansas is among the states now providing less support per K-12 student than before the 2007-2009 Great Recession December 14, 2015 at 8:10am.) In fact, after adjusting for inflation, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says that total state funding per student in Kansas is more than 10% lower than 2008 levels. State officials renaming funds generated by local property taxes as “state aid” doesn’t increase overall education funding.

If you received one of Senator Melcher’s surveys in the mail, we suggest you take a moment to return it. Of the four questions, only one actually pertains directly to education funding, and it repeats the false information that “K-12 funding is at an all-time high”.

Feel free to write Sen. Melcher with some additional input. Leave us a comment about what you wrote on the survey.