Here are the lists of suspended voters from the League of Women Voters in Johnson County and Douglas County. Please see if you recognize names on the list; there are a lot of high school and college age people who may not know their registrations were unsuccessful. These lists are being purged per an order from Secretary of State Kris Kobach. http://lwvjoco.org/voter-info-2/voter-suspense-list/ http://lawrenceleague.com/files/Suspense_list_Douglas_County_8-28-15_by_city.pdf...
Read more
Leave a Comment Blog
Schools forced to absorb student increases
“[T]he 49,498 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade represent the largest enrollment in more than 10 years. Area districts including Goddard, Maize, Andover, Haysville, Derby and Valley Center reported their own increases. “Higher enrollment used to lead to more funding from Topeka, but the 2015 Legislature repealed the long-standing school-finance formula and kept funding at 2014-15 levels. And a state panel set a threshold of a 2 percent enrollment increase to qualify for help from a new ‘extraordinary needs’ fund. It also deferred USD 259’s request for $980,000 more aid related to the influx of refugee families placed...
Read more
Leave a Comment Legislators seek info on school board members’ families’ ties to districts
We hoped common sense had prevailed when a bill that would prohibit people from serving on a school board if they had a relative who works for any school district in the state failed to move out of committee. Now the legislature is surveying current school board members. “Lynn Rogers, a member of the Wichita school board, said that unless the bill is changed significantly, ‘there’s hardly a businessman on main street’ who wouldn’t be disqualified by this restriction… “Tom Krebs, spokesman for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said his organization was encouraging school board members to...
Read more
Leave a Comment Candy bars as school funding solution?
Do we determine funding based on our gut feeling that an overall number sounds like a lot of money, or do we look at unmet needs in districts and realize funding needs to be higher? Here’s an interesting look at the issue. “Jessica Seeliger, a mother of a kindergartener in Wellington, had a novel approach to the school’s fall fundraiser. Instead of just selling the candy bars, perhaps the governor, Hoffman, and 32nd District State Senator Steve Abrams could assist with the fundraiser since she reasoned they were part of the implementation of the current state budget that...
Read more
Leave a Comment