“’When 85 to 95 percent of your expenditures are fixed, and you receive notice halfway through the year that you have to cut, you have to make decisions,’ Stessman said. ‘When we are running close to zero in all of our accounts, there is no leeway.’ “Eight school districts recently applied for additional money from the state’s Extraordinary Need Fund, which was created as part of the new school finance law. The districts requested a total of about $1.2 million, and $498,000 was approved by the State Finance Council. Three districts that submitted requests didn’t receive any additional...
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Merrick email urges donations for ALEC conference
For a mere $5,000 to $100,000 you can help House Speaker Ray Merrick spread corporate tax credit “scholarships” and other harmful ALEC education policy to legislatures throughout the country. Here’s text from an email that was forwarded to us: From: Rep. Ray Merick [sic] <michelle@donerfundraising.com> Date: May 6, 2015 at 11:08:47 AM CDT To: [ ] Subject: 2015 ALEC Annual Meeting Update Dear [ ], ALEC is hosting the 42nd Annual Meeting in San Diego, California on July 22-24, 2015. As a result of the 2014 elections, free-market legislators now hold 68 state chambers across the U.S. Nearly...
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Leave a Comment Tax committee looks at expanding corporate tax credit scholarships
There was a hearing yesterday on SB 270 in the House Taxation Committee (not the Education Committee) which would expand the corporate tax credit “scholarship” program to increase eligibility from students at low-performing schools to students at all public schools. The bill passed the Senate 29-11 earlier this session. This is an ALEC concept, which supports private schools at the expense of public schools. “Tom Krebs, representing the Kansas Association of School Boards, spoke out against the legislation and was the sole witness in opposition. He argued public money should go toward public education, adding little accountability exists...
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Leave a Comment Masterson urges restraint in using extraordinary needs fund
In addition to our earlier post mentioning Sen. Masterson’s focus on cutting spending rather than looking at tax policy, we note “Gov. Sam Brownback and legislative leaders approved less than half of the $1.1 million in additional funding requested by eight school districts [at a meeting last week for requests from the block grant extraordinary needs fund]. Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Andover – who in championing the block grants had said that ‘no district under this plan should have to cut a planned expenditure’ – urged State Finance Council members Tuesday to be cautious about approving funding requests. ‘If...
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