We agree with this editorial completely. “A three-judge panel just told Gov. Sam Brownback and the Legislature what most school districts [and the Game On team] already knew – that the block-grant funding bill flunks the test for adequacy and equity. “The governor and lawmakers tried to do an end run around the judiciary this spring by repealing the 23-year-old school-finance formula before the Kansas Supreme Court had a chance to rule on the constitutionality of current state funding for schools in the 5-year-old Gannon lawsuit brought by districts. “But on Friday the three-judge panel in Shawnee County...
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Court strikes key provisions of block grant system
“A three-judge district court panel ruled Friday that the state’s new block grant system of funding schools is unconstitutional, and it ordered the state to immediately pay nearly $49.6 million to local school districts to restore money that was cut from the current year’s budget when lawmakers passed a new school funding system in March. “The state also will have to add that much each of the next two years, the court said. “The court also struck down key provisions of the new law that change the way certain kinds of ‘equalization’ aid for general operations and maintenance...
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Leave a Comment Legislature pulls back on support for CTE
Here’s another cut to education. “Kansas school districts this year will get less than half the monetary incentive they expected from the state as part of a 2012 initiative to enhance career and technical education. “A memo sent to school districts from the Kansas State Department of Education last week says the per-pupil payment for students who obtained certificates in certain high-demand fields will be ‘approximately $450’ for the just-completed school year. That’s down from a $1,000 per-student incentive promised in the initial legislation… “[SKDE’s Dale] Dennis said the incentives were cut because ‘the money wasn’t there’ in...
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Leave a Comment Judges not fooled by funding maneuvers
“The judges fortunately were not fooled. ‘Though promoted as a change and improvement in K-12 funding,’ they wrote, the new law amounts to ‘no more than a freeze’ on school districts’ operational funding. “Any apparent increases, they added, stem from a legislative maneuver to add the state’s contribution to teacher pension funds to the block grants, and falsely claim that money as operational funding.” Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article25624801.html...
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