Some legislators have started to go wobbly on school finance, as the fiscal implications of the House and Senate proposals become clearer. That’s discouraging, though hardly a surprise. What was surprising was how little rank-and-file resistance there had been this session to the admirable bipartisan effort by the governor and legislative leaders to answer the Kansas Supreme Court’s orders and the Legislature’s own audit with large three-year funding plans. But even one of those may not meet the high court’s expectations. And passing a one-year, $175 million plan, as newly proposed by House Majority Leader Clay Aurand, R-Courtland, won’t come close to giving school districts what they need. Disregarding the cost audit as “politically impossible” also seems indefensible, especially to those in the large urban districts with lots of the poor, at-risk students the audit singled out as deserving far more funding. It will be no easy task for legislators to sort out how best to distribute the money and fund future years. But if lawmakers ignore their own auditors and settle for what is politically easy, they can expect more stern words from the high court, and perhaps another painful special session.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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43 Comments
The only real education reform we should be talking about is school choice. Letting parents pick the school has been working (as in resulting in a better education) in European countries for years. Here in America the entrenched government employees won’t let that happen.
We need to change the system so that results matter, not just the finances.
Do you have a link for that, One Shot?
Dear WE Editors,
I respectfully request a topic merely labeled “Picnic” so that we have only one place to arrange our upcoming first annual WE BLOG bash.
In advance, I thank you
Hank
Dear JR
‘bash’ means ‘get together’, another word for picnic, it is not a physical act or threat.
Hank
LOL
Dad you crack me up.
Does your boss know you are goofing off on the internet again?
Pa
LOL
I am the boss. At least at this job.
Everybody is brave until it comes time to write the check. Let’s see…. what is on the “morals list” that could raise money? Who said yesterday we should legalize prostitution and marijuana? Anything else? Tax gay marriage?
You know kansas. When we need money, all morals go out the window!
Oops . . . looks like One Shot shot his one shot, no link.
Figures.
Hank, let the steers keep their meat. I’m not going to make it to the picnic.
Regrets,
PL
Dear Proudlib,
Unfortunately, somewhere, someplace (Argentina probably) a steer has already made the ultimate sacifice. The burgers are in the freezer.
Sorry you won’t be there, I know that several of the others will be sorry too.
Hopefully you’ll be able to attend the second annual WE BLOG bash in 2007 And hopefully there will be more rebublicans in the House!
I’l send you some pictures!
Hank
Hank, in 2007, I’m pretty sure there’ll be LESS republicans in the House (and the Senate, too!)
Sorry ;-)
I couldn’t resist!
KFG, we could raise the cigarette tax…again. Notice how we never talk about raising the liquor tax? I wonder why….
The price tag for education is starting to cause this old Liberal to cringe. Surely there’s something we can do to at least slow down the hemorage. I still think consolidation is a good idea. While I understand the importance of education, there’s other things that need funding, too. We need to find funding that doesn’t gouge the property owners (as usual).
I do not have a link to show you. I saw a news report comparing US schools to Denmark and other countries.
I also recall reading a position paper for the LP where they favor adopting the choice provisions similar to the ones used in New Zealand.
BB,I am sorry you won’t make it.DD
Latest update:
Attending:
Damoon………bringing baked beans and………ol’ man
Nathan……..single Marines bring chips
XXX……..bringing soda, ice, cups, plates, plastic ware.
Hank……..bringing Joyce…..Hamburgers and fixin’s
Darwin’s Disciple …….coming alone bringing???
Ksfarmgrrl……….bringing homemade tater salad in an ice chest
Ben Huey (maybe toward end, save a beer and burger)
J M Walker…bringing????
CF (trying) bringing??? TexasMex maybe???
JR…..if he can make it, maybe
mrcontroversy …. Maybe will know Monday
Graciously Declines:
Ian…….on the border saving us from the great brown plague (V.L.R.B.!!!)
Ben Huey (maybe not, save room for his beer and burger)
Gertie…… anonymous but loved! Does not want to compromise her political objectivity breaking bread with the rabble.
ProudLib . . . . (declined too late to save a cow)
Nobody is bringing Desert yet!?
Hank
Dear editors,
If we had our own special thread for this picnic administration stuff we wouldn’t be in the way of the problem solving!
I thank you again, in advance.
Hank
Hank,I don’t usually drink cereal malt beverages, but would you like for me to bring some? Make some suggestions. Please. Thanks.DD
I am going to try and make the meet up. I am truly sorry not to be able to meet you ProudLib.Re your last Hank and Nathan har har har de har har.
Hank I think you better give up on a blog devoted to the meet up. I’ve no doubt they know it is going on. But as has been expressed earlier, I do not think they want the legal responsibility of having anything to do with it.
But I will give it a second.
Hey EDITORS????? We know you are reading us!!!! Even if you don’t ever post after giving us stuff to fight about! A meetup of your WE bloggers is happening. This has potential as a draw for more WE bloggers! The potential for internet and Editorial page ad revenue is obvious! Give us a thread about the meetup!
I got drawn off thread again and I always post the thread.
It will be a good day when the schools have all the funds they need and the military has to have a bake sale to buy a bomber.
If the true underlying problem with public schools was underfunding, spending more on schools would be a reasonable thing to do.
But the problem with our schools is much deeper than that. The unfortunate result is that spending more lets everyone claim the problem has been solved, yet no meaningful progress has been made.
Dear DD,
XXX is bringing sodas, so i think drinks are covered. I drink very little any more, a little wine with a meal maybe, a few beers at the monthly poker game.
If anybody wants alcohol they should bring it themselves. No one has offered desert yet, maybe a cake?
Hank
Thanks Hank,
I will bring a cake. Maybe two.
I don’t think we’ll get that dedicated thread.
Risk management people just take all the fun out of life.
Maybe at some point, we should pick an unrelated thread and announce it on most/all of the others?
Yea,
I’m using this thread now, maybe we could hack into Eagle and take over!
Hank
The blog was down for a bit over the noon hour and I was sure Hank had found a way to hack in.
OneShot,
Do you not see the problem with comparing our schools to those in Denmark? There are none so blind….
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
non issue
Please WE folk, give us a thread. Those of us who go to the picnic absolve any harms of any sort, physical or psychological, that we might suffer at said picnic. We are totally responsible for our behavior and do not ask or wish for the Wichita Eagle or Knight Ridder to accept responsibility for same. Amen, etc. etc.Thank you.Steven E. Davis – a non-lawyer compus poopus.
Ditto Darwins post editors.
Hey Darwin, if you are still here, check out the other threads and new posts. What is up with Cru X?
DD,
I hope that you take some pictures and post them for those of us who can’t attend. Damn you shrub!!!
V.L.R.B!!
“What is up with Cru X?”
Sorry, I don’t think I have ever known the answer to that question.
Do you folks ever get a life? Why don’t you go waste your time somewhere else and allow the rest of us to get something of value from the WE blog. Anyone who thinks that school choice is the answer simply doesn’t understand reality. Choice benefits the elite and takes money away from the students most in need. Get into our schools, volunteer, work with a child, and understand reality before you start judging those teachers and administrators who invest so much time and energy to educate our community’s children!
Dear ksfarmgrrl,
You’re up at 6:23am BLOGing and you ask if we ever get a life? I was working sheep at 6:30! Feweding horses at 7. at work by 8.
Going to Ferris, TX to a sheepdog trial tomorrow, delivering a dog to a lady in Austin on Saturday evening, back to the trial on Sunday.
Do I ever get a life?
Love ya, you did ask.
Hank
Law school doesn’t allow me to have a life. :)
OK ALL, I am NOT KANSAS GIRL!!! I was blissfully dozing and/or listening to Imus at 6:30.
Sorry Hank, I thought you knew my writing better than that.
ksfarmgrrl=me
kansasgirl=someone else.
But, welcome girl!
DD says:
“We are totally responsible for our behavior”
OK, DD, you are busted. You can not live in kansas or be from kansas and say something like that!
But I agree to hold the WE harmless for any injuries I inflict….
And DD, I agree, does anyone ever know what is up with crusaderx?
I think he is just at the bottom of his bi-polar bear cycle. He will be at the top of the cycle and back to his manic self any time now.
Unless he is just out of speed….
Dear KansasGirl,
You’re up at 6:23am BLOGing and you ask if we ever get a life? I was working sheep at 6:30! Feweding horses at 7. at work by 8.
Going to Ferris, TX to a sheepdog trial tomorrow, delivering a dog to a lady in Austin on Saturday evening, back to the trial on Sunday.
Do I ever get a life?
Love ya, you did ask.
Hank
Dear ksfarmgrrl,
Sorry, I get so confused.
Hank
Damn Hank, yer goin’ to Austin too? Eat some good barbeque for me too. I recommend Green Mequite.
Speed run. May not have to go all the way. Alergic to Mesquite.
Real help could come if the funding was arranged so that funding followed the student. Then, wherever the student went the funding would follow. Students would leave crummy schools, and the better schools would thrive. It would be like competition withing a public school system. So much better that funding based on money per class size. San Francisco did it, and the results were fantastic. The current shotgun approach of more money simply wont change anything.