To our friends at Educate Lawrence, thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak to Lawrence community members along with Annie McKay of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth! Here’s a quote from an article printed before the event: The Educate Lawrence event will walk through funding and other legislation affecting public schools and include two speakers: Annie McKay with the Kansas Center for Economic Development; and Judith Grote Deedy with the advocacy group Game on for Kansas Schools. McKay will chronicle funding prior to and during the block grants, and Deedy will discuss legislation trends and...
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Stop ALEC crusade in Kansas
“Another key ALEC pursuit involves shifting state support for public education to private operations that don’t face the same accountability as their public counterparts. “Lawmakers whining over the recent court decision on school funding are following ALEC marching orders on that front, as well, as there’s a game plan for targeting justices who don’t fall in line. “The high court’s job is to interpret the law. Kansas law requires the state to provide adequate, equitable educational opportunities for all students. “Brownback’s forces don’t care, and will gin up attacks on justices up for retention in hopes of eventually...
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Leave a Comment Rooker explains proper response to Gannon
Here’s a good explanation of what’s wrong with the budget bill the House passed and the legislative response to Gannon from Rep. Melissa Rooker’s newsletter. Legislative Power to Appropriate The governor has the authority to make unilateral cuts to the budget if the balance is projected to fall below zero. However, this bill expands that authority if the ending balance falls below $100 million, which is essentially unlimited power since we are currently there. We granted this to the governor last summer, but included a provision to protect K-12 funding from those cuts. This time, the bill does...
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Leave a Comment Senate President declares no rush on school funding formula
Senate President Susan Wagle said there is no rush in writing a new school funding formula. We wish they would stop spending so much time on unimportant and harmful education policy and focus on creating a new formula which meets the needs of our students. We would also like to point out that the old formula was repealed a year ago, and more progress should have been made by now. “But the president of the Kansas Senate said Friday that it’s unrealistic to expect lawmakers to devise a new school funding system in the remaining weeks of the...
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