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“Shannon Cotsoradis, chief executive of the advocacy group Kansas Action for Children, said she thought the initiative was ill conceived. ‘We are deeply troubled by the idea of using millions of dollars in TANF money to pay for literacy work,’ she said. ‘These are dollars that are meant to help the lowest-income families in the state.’ It is ‘counter-intuitive,’ she said, to think that children whose ‘basic needs – food, shelter, utilities – aren’t being met’ due to recent restrictions in TANF eligibility would come to school ready to learn.” We support creative funding mechanisms for education, but...

“Apparently Wagle doesn’t understand the court’s role in a democracy and its responsibility to uphold the Kansas Constitution. Also, the Legislature’s own attempts in recent years to limit lawsuits and restrict the court’s authority are recognition of the court’s role in school funding. It’s also noteworthy that Wagle didn’t argue that the state is meeting its constitutional requirement to suitably finance K-12 education. The state’s attorneys also focused mostly on technical issues about legal standing and not adequate funding during last month’s Supreme Court hearing. ‘In doing so, they’re clearly admitting that if they lose, there’s no evidence...

“Kansans might think that state lawmakers tasked with understanding and deciding how to evaluate and reform the state’s school finance formula would be interested in hearing from educators, school administrators and the state agency or board directly charged with education oversight. They’d be wrong, however.”http://www.hutchnews.com/Editorialblogs/edit–school-finance-meeting...