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“As a dad with kids in the SMSD, I’ve witnessed the cuts over the last six years. NE Jo Co Rep. Nancy Lusk (D) and I broke with our fellow Democrats, and voted to concur on the bill to protect our schools from additional cuts. I understand how maddening this is for other districts, and I agree that more money MUST be infused into all of our districts. “Republican leadership killed the Democratic bills that would do that in committee. “Many believe as a ‘rich’ district, SMSD can weather cuts. However, SMSD has 11 Title I schools, and...

“Carmichael and Ward are adamant that the bill the Legislature passed doesn’t meet the standards the Supreme Court order requires to provide roughly equal educational opportunity to students in rich and poor districts. “’Instead it is a freeze of equalization payments at the current levels accomplished through the artifice of a ‘hold harmless’ provision that benefits wealthier school districts at the expense of poorer districts,’ the Carmichael-Ward protest says. ‘The bill also violates the constitutional requirement of equity by expanding Local Option Budget (LOB) authority only for districts wealthy enough to afford local property tax increases.’” Read more...

Here’s a well-done explanation of the history and context of our current school funding crisis. Read it here: http://m.ljworld.com/weblogs/capitol-report/2016/mar/27/the-abcs-of-school-finance-how-we-got-he/?templates=mobile....