“Not only that. The governor wants to sack the state’s school finance formula in favor of a ‘block grant’ to schools, which would make that $127 million cut permanent and shut off any future funding increases for schools from the state. “Why would he propose this? How does this help Kansas? Well, it doesn’t help Kansas schools or Kansas students, but it does help staunch a budget crisis created by a dramatic loss of income tax revenue. School finance is the largest item in the state budget, putting school funds directly in the firing line when state finances...
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Windsor on education cuts and tax policy
Thank you Emporia Board of Education member Brent Windsor for speaking up. “Two weeks ago, the Governor announced that he would reduce K-12 and higher education budgets by $44.5 million. This goes directly against the promise he made during his re-election campaign that he would not reduce funding to education. During his State of the State address, the Governor even went so far as to blame education for the reason Kansas is in financial trouble. I find that hard to swallow when tax cuts implemented in 2012 have resulted in a $344 million dollar deficit projected for this...
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Leave a Comment Follow up on Maas letter
Here’s followup on the letter we posted earlier this week. Bravo, Haeli Maas. The junior at Smoky Valley High School in Lindsborg in the heart of Kansas has penned an eloquent letter to Gov. Sam Brownback. The letter is on the verge of going viral with defenders of K-12 schools in Kansas, for good reasons. Brownback ought to respond to it, especially if he wants to take advantage of a good opportunity to explain his position on school funding. Others who need to read the letter include all the adults in the Kansas Legislature who seemed determined to...
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Leave a Comment Votes from Senate committee passing SB 171
SB 171 on moving elections has now passed out of committee. It provides for nonpartisan elections for cities and school boards in November of odd-numbered years. As we expressed earlier, although this bill is an improvement over the original, it doesn’t solve any problems, still has school board primaries in August, when many families with school-aged children are on vacation, and has school board members take office in January in the middle of the school year. We also remain concerned that this bill will just be the first step in accomplishing the goals of the original bill. In...
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