“Rep. Melissa Rooker, a Fairway Republican, said she was disappointed that earlier work in committee on the policy, which would have required parents to opt-out of sex education, was ignored. She said the committee acted quickly to push the changes out with little discussion and votes lined up. ‘It was very well-orchestrated,’ ‘Rooker said. ‘It was well-planned in advance.’” While sex ed is not one of our issues, we are troubled by what this says about how things are to be handled in the House Education Committee and the lack of transparency. Earlier in the session, there was a...
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Perspective on the Gannon decision from Chanute
“Hardy said USD 413 is hurt by the adequacy question remaining unresolved. Districts are seeing increased costs without an increase in money to meet those costs. At the same time, special education is underfunded as well so the local districts are both making up the shortfalls in regular state aid and special education funding from local funds, Hardy said. School districts had been hoping the base state aid per pupil would be raised closer to the amount it was before the recession budget cuts in 2009. Currently, the base state aid for pupil is $3,838. It was $4,400...
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Leave a Comment Action Alert – March 11, 2013 – Senate bill to move school board and other local elections to November
Action Alert: Contact Senate Ethics and Elections Committee members and urge them to oppose this bill or at least remove school boards from it. Via amendments yesterday the elections have been shifted to odd years instead of even years, vacancies would be selected jointly by Democratic and Republican precinct members and keeping community college elections in the spring. We believe school board elections should also remain in the spring. It makes no sense to have school board elections in the winter with primaries in August when the the school-age population is away on summer vacation. Newly elected board...
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Leave a Comment Sen. Lynn’s troubling comments about Gannon and separation of powers
“From a Legislative Branch perspective, it was perhaps not as bad as it could have been because the core issue of ‘suitable’ or ‘adequate’ spending was remanded back to the trial court for utilization of a different formula. . . Looming over it all, however, is still the fundamental disagreement when it comes to judicial authority to even rule on a school finance plan meeting constitutional muster, something a strong majority of us elected by and answerable to those who pay for it believes is our exclusive responsibility. The saga continues and we’ll see where it ends up,...
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