Pandora’s box opened a bit wider in Kansas with last session’s passage of the corporate tax credit scholarship. Kansans should make sure it doesn’t go any further. Jan Ressenger reports on the Pandora’s box of school privatization. “These are all such nice ideas. The problem, however, in Ohio and Michigan and many other states is that our politics is awash in money. The owners of the for-profits, the on-line charter schools, the shady Charter Management Organizations and other proponents of school privatization including major philanthropists are spending buckets of money to influence the politicians who would have to...
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K-12 Performance and Efficiency Committee recommends commission to study Rose standards
From our friends at Educate Lawrence, “The Kansas Supreme Court established the ‘Rose capacities’ as the standard for evaluating adequate funding of our public schools and sent the judgment on adequacy of school funding back to a three-judge panel. The Rose standard includes measurements of student’s knowledge of civics, economics, fine arts, and possessing the communication skills necessary for entering college or the workforce. The K-12 Student Performance and Efficiency Committee discussed various legislative bills but could only come to agreement on recommending a new study commission to investigate the Rose standard. If passed by the legislature, this...
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Leave a Comment KASB position paper on cash balances
KASB has done a position paper on districts’ cash balances, which are the subject of one of the K-12 Performance and Efficiency Commission’s proposed bills to be discussed Monday. We particularly understand that districts can’t deficit spend, and in the past 7 years, many have been concerned about mid-year budget cuts during the recession and now that the impact of the tax cuts are being felt and there is talk about “structural reforms” to school funding. http://www.kasb.org/assets/Advocacy/Webinars/14/SchoolDistrictCashBalances1214.pdf...
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Leave a Comment Brownback now says KPERS cuts not education cuts
So now we’re being told that KPERS cuts aren’t cuts to education, even though during the past year we were told that KPERS funding did count as education funding. We’re also being told that education and KPERS funding are not sustainable, and the legislature will look at “structural reforms”. We are fully aware that “structural reforms” that result in less spending are “cuts” no matter what you call them. We believe that it’s the current tax cuts that are unsustainable, not education and promised pensions. At least if we read really closely between the lines, we almost get...
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