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The bad education policy ideas just keep coming. Governor Brownback has proposed linking school funding to student performance. That’s another idea that for a split second sounds good until one considers all the implications and complications involved. We agree with Lynn Rogers quoted below. “Wichita school board member Lynn Rogers, the board’s point man on finance issues, said he agrees with Brownback’s goals of students meeting grade levels and leaving high school prepared for college or the workforce. “’But it takes money to do that,’ Rogers said. ‘There’s scientific evidence that justifies the cost behind those weightings. It...

This story provides a helpful explanation of how exactly the tax bill we are now dealing with was passed in the first place. Moderates were promised the bill they were voting for was not going to be the final bill. “‘We were just coming out of a recession,’ [former Senate President Steve] Morris said. ‘It was the first time we could see light at the end of the tunnel. We thought there was no way any kind of tax proposal like this was going to pass.’… “On Friday, the Kansas Department of Revenue announced state tax revenue in...

“The courts have said that we’re supposed to get more money. The legislators are saying they don’t have the money to give,” said Dr. Glenn Fortmayer, USD 247 Superintendent. Kansas school districts like USD 247 have been experiencing budget cuts for the past six years. However, the next round of cuts may have a major impact on the district. “They are looking to reorganize how the funding formula is going to be done,” said Dr. Fortmayer. A Kansas district court recently ruled that public schools are unconstitutionally under funded. To combat this ruling, lawmakers are rewriting the funding...