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Brownback using inaccurate data on schools

“The next time Gov. Sam Brownback makes a claim about education spending, he needs to double or triple check to make sure his numbers are accurate. He and his staff have a bad habit of being wrong. “The most recent mistake occurred during a news conference Friday. Brownback displayed a large chart claiming that the average teacher salary in Kansas was $7,060 more than the average salary in Missouri…The Kansas average included salary and benefits, and the Missouri total was salary only. “At a news conference last month, Brownback infuriated the Garden City school district when he claimed...
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SMSD braces for mid-year cuts

“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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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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