Kansas lawmakers say they don’t have the stomach to raise taxes. Kansans have been hit hard enough, they say. IT’S NOT a good time to be in education in Kansas. DECISIONS come easier when made in an ivory tower, removed from reality.
Before they vote to make more cuts to make budget, it would behoove legislators to visit Pratt, where USD 438 administrators can’t met June’s payroll.
Or Haven, where budget cuts have forced the closure of its Mount Hope Elementary School.
Or right here in Iola, where USD 257 administrators are dealing with a loss of $121,869, forcing them to reduce staff and make patchwork repairs.
First, it’s been necessary to use another branch of government, the judicial, to impress upon legislators Kansas schools are not funded in an equitable manner. Students in poor districts are not receiving the same educational advantages provided to those in wealthy districts.
Legislators, begrudgingly, agreed to increase aid to capital outlay and local option budgets, but before districts ever saw a dime, they reneged on the deal when they dumped the school finance formula in favor of funding schools with block grants.
Now school officials must deal with reduced budgets frozen for two years.
Stay tuned for another legal appeal to fund Kansas schools in an adequate and equitable manner.
But down here on the ground, the pain is palpable.
Seven schools are letting out school one week early in order to help adjust to budget cuts; Chanute schools are leaving vacant two teaching positions; Lakin schools have cut four teaching positions; and Syracuse is looking at eliminating all arts and music classes and field trips, instituting pay-to-play athletics, in addition to freezing salaries, reducing staff and charging fees for pre-kindergarten and all-day kindergarten classes.
Educators fear more hurt is yet to come with last week’s news of faltering revenues.
Surely, legislators will have better sense.
— Susan Lynn
Legislators ignoring dire school funding
