“Rupe said the governor is forcing local school districts to pick up additional costs while telling them to make do with an unconstitutional funding level. “Mark Tallman, lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, cautioned that freezing funding levels — even for a short time — could force districts to absorb rising expenses such as increasing enrollment, special student populations and pension contributions. “‘Even though it appears to be level funding, the actual impact (on) school operations is going to be a negative,’ Tallman said. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article7058147.html#storylink=cpy...
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Game on, Kansas
Let us be blunt. This governor and our legislative leadership have no intention of complying with any court order to increase school funding. The proposal to change the formula is a ploy to avoid the court’s decision. It will take time to figure out how funding is being reduced and re-litigate it. In the meantime, we will see efforts to change judicial selection and lower the retirement age of judges (a bill has already been introduced) so that the courts can be stacked with those passing a litmus test on school funding. As the years go by, those...
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Leave a Comment KASB on the State of the State
We’ll have more to say on this but here’s information from KASB. We agree “’A majority of the projected shortfall we face is due to increases in K-12 spending since fiscal year 2014,’ Brownback said in his State of the State address… “Brownback’s statement was a far cry from his campaign rhetoric when he often bragged about the quality of Kansas public schools and defended his funding record of K-12 education. “And it is a far cry from what budget experts say is the cause of the current budget crisis, which they attribute to income tax cuts enacted...
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Leave a Comment Courts are not meant to be democratic
Last night in the State of the State Gov. Brownback said we should change how judges are selected and make our courts more democratic. We vehemently disagree. Our courts are not designed to be democratic. We have 3 branches of government, two of which are democratic, with the remaining branch (the courts) with the role of upholding legal and constitutional standards regardless of political pressures. This article provides a helpful explanation. But this argument misapprehends the nature of constitutional democracy. As conceived since the nation’s founding, constitutions are understood to provide the legal framework for democratic government, distribute...
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