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State officially appeals Gannon

The State has officially appealed the Gannon adequacy decision. “Since the panel’s ruling, Gov. Sam Brownback has reduced school funding 1.5 percent in the face of a budget shortfall, dropping the amount of base state aid per pupil from $3,852 to $3,811. “This move prompted Schools for Fair Funding, the group that represents districts pushing for more funding, to seek to reopen the already-settled part of the lawsuit that deals with equity among districts. The matter will go before the three-judge panel on March 5, said John Robb, the group’s attorney. “’We look forward to the Supreme Court...
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Sign petition to protect KS courts

Clicking on this link will allow you to input your address and generate an email to your legislator automatically urging them to vote no on the two bills to amend the Kansas Constitution provisions on judicial selection. Judicial selection is directly related to school funding. We do not want justices to be subject to a litmus test based on whether they would support judicial intervention on school funding cases. Urge your legislators to vote NO on HCR 5004 and 5005. “Our courts are too important for politics as usual. I want our Kansas Supreme Court to be remain...
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Senate committee passes bill to move local elections, keep nonpartisan

We still oppose having primaries for school board elections in August when many families are on vacation and having school board members take office in the middle of the school year. We are concerned that moving them to November of even years and leaving them nonpartisan will be a step toward making those other changes in a future legislative session. “School board primaries and elections would be held in August and November of odd-numbered years and would be non-partisan under an amendment approved Wednesday by the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee. “The committee started working on Senate Bill...
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Proposals to change judicial selection moving forward

Heads up, Kansas. The push to consolidate power, make our courts prey to the same money and political pressures impacting the other two branches of our government and eliminate the ability of our courts to protect our public schools has advanced another step. “Kansans would either elect state Supreme Court justices or governors and legislators would have more power in deciding who sits on the high court under rival proposals advancing in the Legislature. “Both proposals approved by the House Judiciary Committee this week would amend the state constitution to scrap the current system, in which a lawyer-led...
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