Blog

Committee discussion on finance bill revealing

On March 17, the Senate Ways and Means committee passed a bill that seeks to comply with the Gannon equity decision by redistributing money already allocated. The comments in this committee and House appropriations generally revealed a lack of honest discussion about how the legislature ended up here and the scope of its options. Our initial take is that this may be one way of complying on equity but will hurt the state’s position on adequacy. SB 512 passes on voice vote. Sens. Francisco, Kerschen, Kelly and Denning voted no....
Read more Leave a Comment

School funding bills addressed in committees

“A Kansas Senate committee gave the go-ahead Thursday [March 17] to a proposed fix of the state’s school equalization formula, but a similar plan in a House committee drew bitter reaction from lawmakers and didn’t advance. “Legislators are trying to beat a June 30 deadline imposed by the state Supreme Court. Unless a new equalization formula is in place by then, the court said last month, public schools won’t open for the 2016-2017 school year.” Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article66628592.html#storylink=cpy Update: the Senate bill was eventually pulled as well and a new bill emerged....
Read more Leave a Comment

Protect against Walmartization of schools

“But what if that story isn’t just about businesses anymore? What if instead of a closed factory or shuttered store, the story is about a closed public school? What if the consequence of these types of business decisions’ isn’t a grown man having to look for another job or an elderly woman having to figure out a new way to pick up her prescriptions, but a child having his or her education significantly disrupted or a whole community left without convenient access to schools?” Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/03/17/the-walmartization-of-public-education/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fcard....
Read more Leave a Comment