Biggest fear: Remake schools to fit GOP idea of a budget

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March 16, 2015 - 12:00 AM

You have to wonder if Gov. Sam Brownback had based his 2014 campaign on gutting education if he would have won.
That would have been the honest track, and who knows, may still have won him reelection.
As it stands now, lawmakers, at the Governor’s bidding, are poised to pass legislation that would freeze funding for K-12 schools, which includes $127 million in cuts for the upcoming school year.
Though legislators say the freeze is for two years, while they redesign the funding formula, the bill’s wording, in fact, says that the block grant funding will begin for 2015-16 and “each school year thereafter,” with no time limit.
Remember, any “freeze” is inherently a cut because it does not account for inflation, additional growth or any  changes that may require additional funding.
The bill is also a bust for poorer school districts like ours because it reduces the state’s contributions to district mill levies by $33 million. This decrease on the state’s part is a direct hit to the 80 percent of Kansas school districts, like USD 257, that are not flush with shopping malls. Overland Park’s Blue Valley High School need not rely  on property taxes because its sales tax base is so strong.
Other cuts include those for special education, funds to help with new construction, and funding for any additional vocational technical programs.
Had the bond issue to build new schools in USD 257 passed last fall, administrators were counting on 51 percent funding from the state to repay the bonds. Beginning July 1, the state will contribute less to any building projects decided from that date forward.
Also, funding for vo-tech programs will be frozen. So if the goal is to expand building trades programs, the additional expense will have to come out of the pockets of local districts.
Brownback defends the cuts to schools by saying he will direct $90 million into the state’s pension program, which doesn’t funnel a penny to the classroom and, frankly, is far-fetched.
Kansas faces a deficit of more than $600 million. To make up that gap, Brownback is counting on legislators passing a tobacco and alcohol tax to raise about $200 million; changing the income tax structure to account for another $200 million; and then tapping the department of transportation for another $200 million.
If legislators don’t go along with the two tax initiatives, things will get considerably worse.

DESPITE THE outcry from school administrators and educators, lawmakers have pushed through the legislation to rewrite school finance in ramrod fashion. Little debate has occurred. The only complaint logged is that its formula of considering the needs of various students and regions is “complicated.”
Our Rep. Kent Thompson disputes that, saying it “just needs to be funded,” to work.
The fear, of course, is that the funding of state schools will be rewritten to fit an idealized budget and not for the needs of students.
Our only hope, in that case, is that the state Constitution would be allowed to prevail, and reinforce the state’s obligation to provide for a free and equitable education.
In the meantime, it’s our children who will suffer.
— Susan Lynn

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