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“Legislators now are on an extended break that precedes their return to the Capitol for the regular wrap-up session. But they should take no pride in the work they did over the weekend, regardless of what anyone thinks of the final product. Some of the measures included in the school finance bill, and some that didn’t make the final cut, should have been introduced in their own right earlier in the session when they would have subjected to debate at the committee level by the proper body and, perhaps, debated on the House and Senate floors. As is...

We agree with this editorial, too, and hope that last weekend’s events showed many Kansans how corrupt the Kansas legislature has become and the importance of looking beyond postcard spin in August and November. “Why, if [corporate tax credit scholarships and elimination of teacher due process] are so grand and necessary and widely supported by the electorate, were they not presented on their own, in a separate piece of legislation? And why, instead of vetting the proposals in the chambers’ respective education committees, were they inserted in the 11th hour in a school finance bill? The answer is...

“Conservatives in the Kansas Legislature this weekend took advantage of a serious problem — inequities in public school funding — to attack teachers and create new problems. In a deplorable sneak attack, Senate leadership and allies in the House tied the elimination of due process for teachers to crucial elements of school funding. That issue hadn’t been dealt with in the normal committee process. Conservatives rammed it through without caring whether lawmakers were fully informed of the consequences. . . Kansas is in a hole without a ladder. Other states are using rising revenues to restore money cut from...

We agree. This is bad policy and bad government. “Where was the love for those ‘great’ schools as the Legislature voted to strip teachers of their due-process rights, subsidize private education with a corporate income-tax credit, and pass unproven ideological reforms while trampling on the policymaking responsibilities of the Kansas State Board of Education? There was no groundswell of support for nullifying Kansas teachers’ 57-year-old right to challenge their dismissal. Though the Kansas Association of School Boards supports making some changes to due process, this wasn’t its proposal. There wasn’t even a legislative hearing on the proposal this...