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Duane Gossen opinion: Legislator’s Step 2 is to properly fund public education

Below is an opinion piece in the Wichita Eagle by Duane Goossen, Former Kansas budget director. “But therein lies the challenge of Step 2. Legislators must both add money and balance the budget. Brownback is correct in part. New school money has to be budgeted. But to do that realistically and responsibly requires more revenue, if not during this session, then definitely in the next. Brownback skipped over the hard part, and kept mum about his own culpability in creating revenue problems for the state in the first place. “So, just as in the last legislative session, when...
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January 21-27 is School Choice Week, a multi-million dollar campaign funded by right-wing groups like the Koch Brothers, Americans for Prosperity, ALEC and the Walton Foundation. The endgame is to replace public education with privatized systems of schooling. Join us and the Network for Public Education in sharing information about how “school choice” often ends up being more about schools choosing students and libertarians eroding support for public education than about helping children. Watch this video from the Network for Public Education about how privatization and “choice” are destroying public education in Arizona. https://www.facebook.com/networkforpubliced/videos/1695154240546347/ Originally shared on Facebook on...
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KC Star Editorial on this year’s ‘divide and conquer’ budget strategy

From the Editorial Board of the Kansas City Star: “Remember: Some of the legislators behind this effort are the ones who broke the state’s tax structure in the first place. Roads and bridges aren’t crumbling because of schools — they’re in trouble because of ill-advised tax cuts in 2013 that robbed the state of needed revenue. “But don’t be deceived. Supporters of an ‘us vs. them’ approach don’t really care about spending more money on transportation, or health care, or pensions, or any other state program in the years ahead. Their only real goal is to shrink government...
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