Towards the end of this year’s session, the legislature rejected the State Board of Education request to continue to provide funding for security grants and instead gave the Attorney General’s office money to be used for video gun detection program no districts requested. The SBOE is now requesting the legislature restore the funding for the securty program. “The board this week agreed to ask lawmakers to approve $15 million to fully fund a program that had been flooded with requests from school districts over the years. The Legislature had started funding the program at about $5 million in...
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$43M withheld from Kansas Schools
Playing politics with school funding is unacceptable. “An abrupt decision to hold back millions of dollars in federal funding for Kansas schools threatens to make it more difficult for some students to learn English and for poor districts to provide after-school activities. The funding freeze, which will also affect programs designed to improve student achievement and help recruit and retain teachers, comes as part of the Trump administration’s effort to crack down on schools that it says are promoting ‘a radical left-wing agenda.’ The Department of Education has indefinitely delayed almost $43 million in grant funding for Kansas...
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Leave a Comment Trump freezes federal education funds
The Trump administration, on almost no notice, is witholding billions of dollars of Congressionally appropriated funds from public schools. This is wrong on so many levels. School districts can’t just decide to raise prices and contracts to provide services have likely already been signed. This is cruel politics and is unacceptable. “The federal government is withholding more than $42 million from Kansas schools that would pay for professional development for educators, programs for improving student achievement, after-school learning programs and migrant education. “Deputy Education Commissioner Frank Harwood on Tuesday detailed how Kansas would be affected by the Trump’s...
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Leave a Comment Steven Becker explains why we shouldn’t elect Supreme Court Justices
We miss having Steven Becker in the legislature. Here he explains why we shouldn’t elect Supreme Court Justices. “This session, the Kansas Legislature voted to send Senate Concurrent Resolution 1611 to voters. This proposed constitutional amendment creates the direct partisan political election of Kansas Supreme Court justices. Such elections would be the death knell of an independent judiciary…The majority of the Legislature sadly confuses the court of law with the court of public opinion. “Partisan election of judges conflicts with the very essence of the role of the judiciary. A judge has no constituency. A judge must not...
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