Exactly! “In an anti-educator witch hunt, a legislative committee is trying to identify school board members whose spouses or relatives work for school districts anywhere in the state or who do business with a district or the state – as if a bill to keep such people off local boards hadn’t been justifiably criticized and killed early this year. Local boards already use recusal to deal with potential conflicts of interest. Such sweeping new restrictions on board membership would be a big problem, especially in rural districts. This is more Statehouse meddling in local matters. It’s also hypocritical,...
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Block grants a bad recipe part 2
“School block grants are a direct result of the state’s financial crisis. With revenue dropping as a consequence of unaffordable tax cuts, the switch to block grants provided a way to shut off increases for schools. Yes, as the chart shows, the amount for KPERS, capital improvement aid (buildings), capital outlay aid, and local option budget aid (mostly property tax relief) has grown. But the remaining state aid–the money that is used for classrooms–has declined. “If Kansas lawmakers want more money to go to classrooms, they should put more money there. The current block grant setup does not...
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Leave a Comment Reading between the lines of school board member survey
“KASB is encouraging board members to take the time to fill out and return this survey. As you answer the questions, please take the time to ask why these questions are being asked. “Does the fact that your brother drives a school bus in Leoti affect your ability to make decisions in the best interest of the students of Lawrence? The legislation that was introduced last year would have restricted anyone who has a relative who works for KSDE or ANY Kansas school district from serving on their local school board.” Read more here: http://heimkasb.blogspot.com/2015/09/do-we-trust-kansas-voters-reading.html...
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Leave a Comment Johnson and Douglas County suspended voters
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...
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