Kansas views on school finance, Gitmo detainees, KSU sportsmanship pledge
School finance – Gov. Sam Brownback repeatedly demonstrates that he either fails to understand the basic tenets of school financing or he is willing to deliberately mislead the citizens of Kansas. A recent e-mail from his office to “fellow Kansans” contends that, despite a lot of “bombastic talk” from union leaders and newspaper editorials, “Kansas schools are well-funded.” Look no further, it says, than the Tonganoxie school district’s new elementary school. Or the new fine arts facility in Osage County. Plus, the Shawnee Mission school district just broke ground on the first of six buildings, and Wichita is building a new high school. Those are signs of progress all right. But Brownback can’t take credit. All came about because local voters affirmed the value of quality public schools and approved bond issues for construction projects. School districts look to the state to fund most of the day-to-day expenses of educating children and paying teachers and staff. Those dollars continue to fall short.
Legislators said they didn’t like the state’s existing school-funding formula, which was based on the number of students and their special needs, so they instituted the block-grant system for two years while they work to create a new school-finance system. The loose process followed to distribute money from the “extraordinary needs fund” doesn’t inspire much confidence in the impact that new finance system will have on Kansas schools.
GOP legislative leaders on the State Finance Council told school districts to detail ways they’ve made their operations more cost-efficient. Taxpayer-funded public school districts should run as efficiently as possible. But the request was sheer hypocrisy from a governor and fellow ultraconservatives known for their own gross fiscal mismanagement. They did, after all, give Kansas the worst tax plan in the nation in 2012, which resulted in huge budget deficits, multiple credit downgrades and significant financial hits to public schools, infrastructure, mental health and other programs for vulnerable Kansans.
Gitmo detainees – All the people – from members of Congress, governors, state legislators and private citizens – trying to convince President Obama that 116 prisoners now being detained in a prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should stay there are right. Sen. Steve Fitzgerald, R-Leavenworth, said moving the prisoners to the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth would invite terrorist attacks in the vicinity of the prison. We, too, believe that to be the case, and Obama shouldn’t create additional problems in this country for a few of its communities and their citizens.
KSU pledge – No university or high school should have to make students sign a sportsmanship pledge. But Kansas State University is doing so and taking the lead that other schools should follow. The impetus at K-State was the mayhem that erupted on the court in Bramlage Coliseum this past spring after the Wildcats basketball team beat archrival University of Kansas. Students chanted inappropriate language during the game and stormed the court after, jostling KU players and coach Bill Self. The sportsmanship pledge shows initiative on the part of the university to set a higher standard. Whether it works, of course, will be dependent on enforcement.
This story was originally published September 6, 2015 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Kansas views on school finance, Gitmo detainees, KSU sportsmanship pledge."