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Lobbyists who have opposed funding for Kansas schools and promoted ALEC policy named to education commission

Kansas legislative leadership once again illustrates how they view education policy. Speaker Merrick has appointed free market/tax policy analyst/president of the Kansas Policy Institute Dave Trabert and Kansas Chamber of Commerce President Mike O’Neal to the education commission to be established under the harmful education finance bill passed at the very end of the legislative session. Both have opposed additional funding for schools and pushed for the corporate tax credit scholarship and other harmful education policy. http://cjonline.com/news/2014-06-10/trabert-oneal-appointed-schools-commission...
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Further education cuts looming

Steve Rose’s most recent piece notes that further cuts to education are looming. There is an unfortunate link between current tax policy and education funding. He also points out what we have reluctantly concluded, “There are two camps of tax-cutters in the Legislature. Both are enemies of public schools and universities. And if there is expense cutting, K-12 schools and universities will be the most obvious targets. They make up the vast majority of state expenses.” We hope he is wrong when he says people won’t wake up until we have another round of cuts. Read more here:...
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Pro-education candidates file

At election time, all the candidates say they are “pro-education”. We are happy to see candidates filing to challenge some of those who appear to have a different definition of “pro-education”. http://www.kansas.com/2014/06/02/3489048/candidacies-for-kansas-legislature.html...
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DC charter funneling millions in tax dollars

And here’s another example of charter mismanagement of funds. “Kent Amos, founder of one of the oldest and largest D.C. charter school networks, allegedly funneled millions of school dollars to a for-profit management company he owns, according to a legal complaint filed Monday by D.C. Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan. . . This is the second D.C. charter school in the past year to come under scrutiny for allegedly funneling tax dollars to a management company with ties to school leaders. The District sued Options Public Charter School in October alleging that its three former leaders diverted millions...
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