“District Superintendent Jim Hinson told school board members at their monthly meeting Thursday that he fully expects the state at some point in the coming school year to cut funding to schools and that his staff has taken precautions to keep the district afloat in all but the most catastrophic of financial situations. “’We’re trying to be very prudent, very careful,’ Hinson said. ‘We do not want to be in a situation where all of the sudden in January we lose a very significant amount of money and we’re trying to figure out what do we do to...
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J.R. Claeys enjoys ALEC trip to San Diego
J.R. Claeys enjoyed his trip to San Diego for the ALEC conference and even got in on the Tax and Fiscal Policy and Education committees. Were your legislators there, too? Image shared on Facebook by Kansas Families for Education....
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Leave a Comment Brookings reminds tax cuts are bad idea for economic growth
Tax policy is inextricably linked with education funding in Kansas. Here’s more cause for concern. Read the whole article but here’s the conclusion. “The states have no good reasons to believe that tax cuts will bring the desired manna. Yet they continue to erode their tax bases in the name of business growth during an era in which few states can afford to cut critical services ranging from education to infrastructure repair. Some ideas live on and on, no matter how much evidence accumulates against them. States that follow them do so at their own peril.” Read more...
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Leave a Comment Lawrence views property tax increase to maintain funding under block grant
Be wary of people talking about increases in school funding under the block grants and help your friends understand the reality of school funding now. This article about the Lawrence school district budget is one example of how comparisons between last year and this year are problematic. “The publication includes a side-by-side comparison with last year’s budget, but Johnson said the comparison — which indicates an approximately $20 million increase in total expenditures — is skewed by the inclusion of money that wasn’t previously moved through the general operating fund, such as state aid to the Kansas Retirement...
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