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“The report offers a good combination of data and anecdotal information from districts throughout the state. While the numbers paint a bleak picture, the information gleaned from school administrators is more concerning, showing that throughout Kansas school districts have spent the past several years squeezing their budgets to get by on less money, while other states have restored spending lost during the recession that began in 2008… “In the coming months, we will hear much campaign rhetoric about education spending in Kansas. Regardless of those manufactured messages designed to impress voters, the truth is on the ground, in...

Johnson County legislators are bullying a volunteer agency. Is this happening to school boards, too? “Kansas lawmakers spent a good deal of their last session demanding ‘freedom’ from the federal government’s health care rules. Too bad their concerns don’t extend to freedom of speech and a free press. “Mary Pilcher-Cook, a Republican senator from Shawnee, is known for her disrespect of facts and opinions that clash with her views. On Monday, she led a delegation of 10 lawmakers to a meeting with the Johnson County Commission on Aging. “The legislators’ intent was to bully commission members into abandoning...

“But don’t think for a moment that this is always an unintended consequence of tight budgets. Those who perennially advocate for less funding for public education must surely understand that some rural school districts will be squeezed out of existence. So while they publicly voice their opposition to forced consolidation, their actions reveal that the disappearance of small rural Kansas school districts is not a concern to them and in fact they are hoping for that outcome. But of course they prefer the subtle consolidation by starvation over the more open and obvious forced consolidation. “And when that...