Sen. Ty Masterson is accusing USD 437 of delaying a maintenance project for political reasons. Superintendent Dietrich “expressed gratitude that Masterson intends to address the concerns of districts like hers with a budget proviso, but she rejected his argument concerning her district’s cash balance. “’We don’t get tax distributions on a monthly basis,’ she said. ‘So it’s a whole cash flow issue.’ “USD 437 pays about $650,000 in custodial and maintenance salaries out of its maintenance fund, she said, and won’t receive its first major payment of 2015-2016 maintenance dollars until halfway through the school year. That will...
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April 7 school board elections successful
It looks like the good guys generally won yesterday in low-turnout elections. Joe Beveridge defeated AFP-supported Robyn Essex in Olathe. In Blue Valley incumbent Pam Robinson defeated private school parent Alana Roethle who is using a lot of the same rhetoric we see from AFP. Sara Goodburn defeated Mark Ellis, who cites Dave Trabert as a reliable authority on school funding. Auburn-Washburn incumbent Tom Bruno defeated Mark Leenerts, who cites the Kansas Policy Institute. Voters recognized that if a school board candidate is supported by Americans for Prosperity, supports the block grant, uses KPI talking points or sends their children...
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Leave a Comment Ideological lobbyists influencing Kansas legislature
We disagree with the “pro-business” label in this story and the implication it’s just Democrats who see this issue, but otherwise see it as quite accurate. These lobbies are not “pro-business”; they have an extreme ideology based on the highly discredited Laffer curve low-tax, and an over reliance on the “free market”. “In case after case, many Statehouse observers have noted, the fate of major pieces of legislation this year has depended on one thing: the support or opposition it receives from a small number of pro-business lobby groups led by the Kansas Chamber, Americans for Prosperity, and...
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Leave a Comment Supt. Allison urges support for schools
Thank you, Superintendent Allison. “Neither the needs of our children nor the costs associated with serving them will change simply because the state faces a revenue shortage. Nor will those needs be met by disguising payments to the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System as additional classroom investments. There is no question that the chronically underfunded KPERS system must be supported, but we must not do so at the expense of future generations of Kansas students. “Our state faces difficult decisions stemming from a serious shortfall in revenue. As we move forward from the two-year block-grant funding mechanism to...
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