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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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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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Block grants become law, funding cuts immediate

“Senate Bill 7, the controversial legislation that repeals the old school finance formula and replaces it for two years with a system of block grants to school districts, officially became law Thursday [April 2] when it was published in the Kansas Register. “For the time being, at least, school districts will immediately start to be funded under a different formula. Some, including the Lawrence school district, will start receiving less money than they had expected when they adopted their budgets last August. But it remains to be seen how long state courts will allow that to continue.” Read...
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