Here’s a helpful recap of the passage of the education finance bill by Republican Rep. Stephanie Clayton: On Friday, April 4th, the Kansas House passed an excellent bill that would have brought the most money to Johnson County Schools, allowed us to increase our Local Option Budget, and provided for some other minor policy changes. This bill was a bill I was proud to support, and that sentiment was mirrored by Governor Brownback, who visited the House GOP caucus to urge us to support the bill prior to the vote. This bill was unique in the fact that...
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Eagle editorial pans elimination of teacher due process
“The amendment eliminating due-process rights for K-12 teachers was necessary to assure passage of the larger school-funding bill, according to some conservatives. If so, you’d expect proponents at least to be clear on what the provision did, both before and after the vote. No doubt committee hearings would have helped, but lawmakers skipped that step. The rush job of a bill has riled up many more Kansans than just public school teachers for multiple reasons, with no guarantee that it will satisfy the Kansas Supreme Court’s narrow order to restore equalization funding between wealthy and poor school districts.”...
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Leave a Comment We are real parents in a real crisis
“As Lorde sings, ‘we’ll never be royals,’ feted by corporate education reformers. Nor are we teacher union pawns. We’re real parents in a real crisis. And maybe, just maybe, if politicians look us in the eye, our children and their truly public schools might get the support they so desperately need.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/13/were-real-parents-in-a-real-crisis/ This piece from a parent advocate in Boston shows us where Kansas is heading and echoes our sentiments. We do not oppose charters. Charters are allowed in Kansas, but where they are promoted and not held to the same financial and academic accountability and enrollment standards as...
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Leave a Comment JoCo legislators voting for education finance bill received KS Chamber and Koch funding
In the recent vote on the education finance bill with the harmful policy provisions, eastern Johnson County senators and representatives voted against the bill. Central and western Johnson County legislators voted in favor of the bill. This bill’s policy pieces were part of the privatization/anti-public school agenda pushed by the Kochs and their various funded and influenced lobbying entities, ALEC, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, AFP and KPI. We’ve also included Speaker Merrick’s donation from Kansas Chamber President Mike O’Neal. Here’s a chart showing HB 2506 Johnson County aye votes and donations those legislators received from Kansas Chamber...
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