This concept seems common sense to us, but in Kansas we currently have a bill to eliminate collective bargaining much more extensively than in an agreement reached by the superintendents’ association, the school boards association and the teachers unions and a bill to eliminate an exemption from criminal prosecution for teachers regarding presentation of material “harmful to minors.” See http://cjonline.com/news/2015-02-04/after-reaching-own-compromise-education-groups-oppose-teacher-negotiations-bill. And at the end of last session we had the removal of due process (not tenure) for teachers. Given our current environment where school funding is at risk, our populations in need of extra academic services are increasing, and...
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Bundling bills is bad policy
Last year’s passage of HB 2506, which combined the Gannon equity remedy with several harmful education policy provisions that had not passed through the legislature during the regular session is a prime example of what’s wrong with bundling bills. “That is not a good way to do business, or to govern. Bundling two, closely related bills into one can usually be justified, but using one good bill to carry several dogs across the legislative finish line is a shameful practice…Perhaps, the House should stick to its guns on this one and decline to participate in bundling that pulls...
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Leave a Comment Bills set up partisan takeover of local elections
Those who support nonpartisan, local school board elections need to understand how several bills moving through our legislature would change that. “The House Elections Committee has recommended that the full House pass a Kobach bill to restore straight-ticket voting in Kansas. “Combine that with a proposal by Gov. Sam Brownback, which Kobach supports, to move elections for local and judicial races from the spring to the fall, and you can see where this is headed. Brownback and Kobach would love nothing more than to engineer a partisan takeover of local races by creating long ballots with a tempting...
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Leave a Comment SB 71 funding cuts problematic for districts
This article does a great job explaining where the money at issue in SB 71 came from, why it was proposed, how candidates took full advantage of the “increased funding” during campaign season and why taking it away midyear is problematic. “But [the Gannon equity fix] didn’t really give districts more spending authority. It only altered the mixture of funding sources so that a greater percentage of the total pot would come from the state instead of local property taxes. And in Lawrence’s case, the sum total of all the changes lawmakers made would have been a cut...
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