Kansas views on school funding, job growth, death penalty
School funding – With their continued negligent approach to K-12 education, Gov. Sam Brownback and Republican leaders last week stiffed Kansas kids again. Making things up as they went along, Brownback and the State Finance Council he leads refused to give the Olathe and Bonner Springs school districts a single extra cent to better serve additional students. The Kansas City, Kan., district fared marginally better, receiving $400,000 more but far below the $2 million it requested to serve a higher enrollment this fall. Overall, the council handed out only $6 million of the $15 million sought by several dozen districts across the state. The proceedings presented another disappointing example of how Brownback’s battles with educators disrupt local attempts to create high-performing schools.
The school-finance plan that was discarded by the Legislature recognized that every district has different needs. The block-grant program offers a one-size-fits-all approach to funding. “Our needs in western Kansas are different from the needs (of schools) in Wichita or Topeka,” Dighton superintendent Randy Freeman emphasizes. “Our kids are no more important or less, but our situation could be more extreme.” The grant program doesn’t recognize that – not that conservative members of the Legislature care. Their objective is pretty straightforward – cut funding for education by whatever means possible.
Education funding certainly is not an easy subject to grasp. But one would think that with all the resources at his disposal that Gov. Sam Brownback would not be one of those who’s confused about the fiscal reality of Kansas’ K-12 education. But confused, or deliberately misleading, he is.
Job growth – Gov. Sam Brownback recently dismissed a report on Kansas’ lackluster job growth because it included public-sector employment (as if those jobs don’t matter). He preferred to focus on private-sector jobs. Yet a report released last week by the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors – it provides economic insight directly to the governor – didn’t help his cause. The council’s report showed Kansas lost manufacturing jobs between June 2014 and 2015, even as manufacturing employment grew in the nation as a whole. Kansas, with a 0.9 percent decline compared with 1.3 percent growth nationwide, also trailed states in the region. Unfortunately, it’s more proof of the fallacy of Brownback’s 2012 plan for economic growth, which centered on the discredited “trickle down” strategy of easing the tax burden on the rich as a way to spur immediate job creation.
Death penalty – Young people aren’t afraid to speak up when they think their elders are misguided, and sometimes they’re right. That’s the case with a recent resolution from the Kansas Federation of College Republicans calling for the party to push to end the death penalty in Kansas. For too long conservatives in the party have blindly supported the death penalty on one hand, while spouting support for being “pro-life” on the other. One view cancels out the other.
This story was originally published August 30, 2015 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Kansas views on school funding, job growth, death penalty."