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Teens encouraged to participate in school funding debate

Sharing from our friends at Educate Lawrence. We fully support student engagement on the current issues facing Kansas public education and would be happy to support efforts of youth throughout Kansas (including Johnson County). “We suggested in November that teens become really interested in voting. But participation in government is more than a trip to the polls in November. Kansas teens and young adults should ask a lot of questions right now as their schools and colleges become increasingly underfunded, their teachers underpaid, their activities curtailed and the funding burden shifted to local governments that aren’t as prosperous...
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Bundling bills addressed but still allowed

Senator King is announcing his intent to block a common sense change in Kansas politics. Last week the House passed a bill prohibiting the bundling of more than 2 bills. We only recently came to understand how bad bill bundling is. In Topeka, legislatures will put together important bills that must pass together with bills that would never pass on their own. Not only does that lead to passage of policy that shouldn’t pass, but also leads to confusion about exactly what legislators voted for and against. HB 2506 from last year is a perfect example. The legislature...
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SB 71 would impose midyear cuts on districts

“‘We are in the middle of the school year right now. So that $3.3 million would be hitting us in the middle of the school year,’ [Blue Valley School District Assistant Superintendent Mike Slagel] said. “’Obviously we already have the teachers in the classroom, we already have the bus drivers so we’d have to look for other ways to manage that new found deficit.’ “Slagel said the news of a mid-year budget reduction isn’t exactly a surprise, but it’s still unexpected.” http://www.kshb.com/news/state/kansas/kansas-schools-could-face-new-budget-reductions-with-introduction-of-new-senate-bill...
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