Blog

Please read and share this article. See the list of bills at the bottom, and several of them will look familiar to those who followed the 2013 legislative session. These are not Kansas bills, and they will not benefit Kansas public school students. Cashing In On Kids:139 ALEC Bills in 2013 Promote a Private, For-Profit Education Model http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/07/12175/cashing-kids139-alec-bills-2013-promote-private-profit-education-model...

“’It’s time to ask (lawmakers) to fund the law and the statutes that the legislators made themselves,’ said board member Sally Cauble, who made the motion.” Voting against the motion were 2 JoCo Board representatives, Steve Roberts, Overland Park, and John Bacon, Olathe, as well as Ken Willard of Hutchinson.  http://cjonline.com/news/2013-07-09/billion-dollar-shortfall-schools-two-year-state-budget...

Now Governor Brownback can ask potential appellate court judges their views on the court’s role in school funding, appoint those who will rule that only the legislature can determine what suitable funding means under the Kansas Constitution and keep us from knowing who else was passed over. Kansans beware-the bill to amend the Kansas Constitution so that he can do the same thing with the Supreme Court will be back, especially if the Court rules in favor of the plaintiffs in the Gannon case in early January.http://www.kansascity.com/2013/07/06/4331566/brownbacks-judicial-power-grab.html...

Steve Rose’s look at what is likely to happen when the Kansas Supreme Court decides the Gannon case should be viewed in the context of the fact that the adequate funding numbers were derived by the legislature’s own studies, not the court, and that Kansas schools are facing very real consequences of underfunding at at time of increasing need. SMSD has had reductions in staff, increases in class size caps, decreased supply budgets, no funding for library books, decreased janitorial services and other cuts. That’s not spin, that’s reality. Blue Valley and Olathe are so far being protected by...