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During the K-12 Student Success meeting yesterday, Rep. Lunn cited the KPI-pushed statistic that Kansas is around 4th in the country in its school funding from the state general fund. What he failed to recognize was that in the early 90s, Kansas made a conscious decision to make school funding less reliant on local property taxes and more on state level funding, and that now the 20 mills raised locally (that accounting change comes in at $586.5 million) is counted as state funding. He also looked at statewide test scores without acknowledging increases in Kanas ELL students and...

We believe decisions in the Gannon case will also be used as a reason to try to change the makeup of the Supreme Court through retention elections in 2016. Kansas public school advocates also need to be court advocates. “But they are also being watched closely, both inside and outside of Kansas, for another reason. A majority of the jurists hearing those appeals — six of the 14 Court of Appeals judges, and five of the seven Supreme Court justices — will be up for retention in the 2016 elections. And some experts are already predicting those elections...

“Three of the lawmakers are from Wichita: Steve Brunk, Dan Hawkins and Joseph Scapa. The state paid $400 each for Hawkins and Scapa to attend. Brunk’s registration cost $500 because it came after the early registration deadline. “The other lawmakers are Sen. Julia Lynn and Rep. Erin Davis from Olathe, Reps. Charles Macheers and John Rubin from Shawnee, House Speaker Pro Tem Peggy Mast from Emporia, Rep. Kevin Jones from Wellsville, Rep. Sharon Schwartz from Washington, Rep. Tony Barton from Leavenworth, Rep. Kyle Hoffman from Coldwater and Sen. Tom Arpke from Salina.” Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/prairie-politics/article47940875.html...

http://themercury.com/articles/board-members-grill-legislators-on-education-funding From USD 383 Board of Education Member Aaron Estabrook, “I’m proud of the USD 383 Board of Education for voicing the districts concerns to the exact people who can directly affect the new school finance proposals. We can only hope it makes a difference. In the end, the true accountability resides with the voters at the ballot box.” You can watch the proceedings here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgSRYTP0vec. The work session starts around the 16 minute mark and ends around 1:42. Legislators attending the meeting were Rep. Phillips, Rep. Swanson, Rep. Carlin, Rep. Highland and Sen. Hawk. We commend the board...