Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, isn’t losing sleep about the state’s recent cuts to public school funding. Between the finance formula and federal stimulus funds, he told the Hutchinson News, “there are some school districts that actually will get more money this year than last year.” Another court challenge by school districts, he said, “would be very poor timing on their part. In terms of agencies that consume taxpayer dollars, they were dealt with in a better and more benign fashion than virtually anyone else. We are in a recession and everyone has to do their share.”
O’Neal also said: “We’re not failing our kids. If you go out and see what our schools are able to do, you’ll see that we’re doing a bang-up job. Does that mean that schools are going to be able to afford all the new bells and whistles or expand their curriculum? No. They’ll have to tighten their belts, but we’re not depriving the kids with these cuts of what is required under law for education. We’re actually doing pretty darn well.”
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29 Comments
Hooray!
About time our kids and teachers got an attaboy!
Wichita should be doing very well, after that fat school bond bill we passed.
Regular, the “fat” school bond money must, by law, be spent on facilities and facility upgrades. None of that money can be spent IN the classroom. The “IN the classroom” money comes directly from Topeka through a per pupil dollar amount.
Also, the Montoy case will resurface in the state Supreme Court very soon. The recissions to the per pupil funding has fallen may have fallen below the “suitable” funding requirement in the State Constitution.
That may be true Blaidd, but a good learning environment will help kids learn better, faster.
Growing up in an era with wooden desks from the early 1900s, no air conditioning and bare essentials, I can tell you kids these days have suitable environments to learn.
We are in a recession, school administrations will have to tighten their belts like everyone else.
There is a 259 elementary school near my home, it sits on a corner and there are tall fences on the two sides that border the neighborhood streets that serve to protect the children. Fine fences that don’t sag, they are completely and totally intact, strong and not in need of repair.
The tall strong intact fences were torn down last week, not just the fencing material, but all the tall strong firmly set posts too.
They’re being replaced. The fence that was strong and not in need of any repair, and served its purpose well — is being replaced.
Termites or post rot underground, common problems with wooden fencing. lindainks?
All metal fencing and posts, very good fence and not compromised in any way.
As I’ve told you before the school grounds are part of an approx. two-block area that includes a city park, a city swimming pool, tennis courts… and my dog Ginger and I see this area almost every day up close and personal. We have responsibilities there! Ginger’s are the more difficult as she puts the squirrels back in the trees where they belong, I pick up after humankind. I’m often right there at that fenceline where Kansas wind has blown the litter — I know that fence! I know it well and know it didn’t need any repair, let alone replacement!
Just this morning I passed two neighbors when we were all out with our dogs. One neighbor said, “Well they have all that bond money burning holes in their pockets, they’ve just gotta spend it.”
” “Well they have all that bond money burning holes in their pockets, they’ve just gotta spend it.”
Just following the lead of our representatives in Washington.
“Well they have all that stimulus money burning holes in their pockets, they’ve just gotta spend it.”
Actually I watched the great difficulty in dismantling this mighty strong fence. It’s been the talk of my neighborhood for the past week or so. None of us are happy!
So sad.
This is how USD 259 spends our money.
And by golly replacing a fence – CREATES JOBS!!!!
(snort, snort)
Perhaps someone needs to go to a school board meeting and find out exactly why they replaced the fence.
I hope the school districts sue again, the State Court already ruled on how much funding they can cut. They underfund everything they can so that it is broke and doesn’t work.
As I come upon enrollment this year I can’t stop wondering how much I’m going to have to write that check for this year. Thank god I’ve got only one in school again.
I wish the schools would give Paras a raise. Perhaps they’d be able to keep the good ones.
Oh wait they did get a raise this year because minimum wage went up.
It will be a good day when the schools have all the money they need and the Air Force has to have a bake sale to buy a bomber.
I would like to think there’s a valid reason for replacing said fence.
Perhaps it’s perfectly strong enough to keep kickballs from leaving the the playground but not strong enough to keep cars from crashing through an intersection and getting in.
At least I hope there’s a reason.
The sensible thing it to call someone on the school board and ask WTF? Far more productive, I’d think, than neighborhood gossip and WE Blog speculation.
Regular, there is no doubt that a good learning environment will help kids learn better, faster (in your words).
However the “suitable” education as written in Article 6 of the KS Constitution has nothing to do with what the voters in USD 259 chose to fund last November. The “suitable” refers to the responsibility of the KS Legislature and funding at the state level. It is true that the economy is wallowing in the midst of the Bush recession, but we can not skimp on our children’s education, an investment in our scoiety’s future.
“I hope the school districts sue again, the State Court already ruled on how much funding they can cut. They underfund everything they can so that it is broke and doesn’t work.
As I come upon enrollment this year I can’t stop wondering how much I’m going to have to write that check for this year.”
This reflects a lack of understanding on how government is funded.
1. If the school board sues we pay:
a. Lawyers for the school board
b. Lawyers for the state
c. Local school district dollars on teachers involvement and representation throughout the event.
d. State dollars on state officials involvement and representation throughout the event.
e. Time wasted by state legislature, governors office, and local elected officials.
f. The staff and one judge who will decide it.
g. The state supreme court costs for the appeal.
2. If the school board wins:
a. We also get the priviledge of paying higher state school taxes.
b. Any local option tax our local school board bestows upon us.
Kansas citizens and taxpayers do not win in a lawsuit against ourselves.
And one reader is worried about writing a check for a few dollars more to support her ONE kid?
“, but we can not skimp on our children’s education, an investment in our scoiety’s future.”
Always the lib solution: Throw more money at it. Regardless of the circumstances.
Well, I can’t speak to your fence story linda.
I CAN tell you one of my own. In the last few years, they put new fence all the way around my elementary and junior high schools. Now granted, the fence that they removed and replaced was not falling down.
But it HAD been in place since at least before I started attending school.
That made that fencing, which at the elementary school had only surrounded maybe half the school anyway, at least 40 years old.
Amway portrays the typical RW solution: I’ve got mine, so F*** YOU.
I guess it would be okay to throw money at it if there will be a benefit to a business.
Yep, that “trickle-down” economics really works!
I had occasion to be back at my high school recently. I hadn’t been there in more than 20 years.
It is SO much nicer inside now! And it had been added to and changed SO much that I literally got lost in a new addition to the building. It was a very different dull, drab, hot place when I was a student.
When Reagan was President.
“I’ve got mine,”
Rather an ignorant post Blaidd_Drwg69. I never said those words, and you are seen as jumping to conclusions.
“hot place when I was a student.”
That’s something I never understood. In my school district here in Kansas, they don’t have central air conditioning (except in the teachers lounges).
Much too hot for learning.
Being in the military, I had the experience of schools in my home of record state as well as many others and overseas. Air conditioning seemed pretty standard.
Air conditioning seems pretty standard in any business or retail store.
Not our kids schools?
If the Libs really cared about saving the planet, they’d turn off all the A/C and sweat for a change.
lindainks55
Posted July 26, 2009 at 10:04 am | Permalink
All metal fencing and posts, very good fence and not compromised in any way.
—————————
Dunno, unless the metal fence was causing injuries or perhaps some sort of ‘lead paint’ base to it.
You don’t have to actually say it Amway, your posts here make that crystal clear.
Blaidd_Drwg69 I’m sure some of the radiation is seeping through the tinfoil. You might want to try one of the heavy duty varieties.
Oh good heavens Linda! Grow some balls and be brave enough to ask the questions yourself at a board meeting instead of whining about it on the blogs.
“The sensible thing it to call someone on the school board and ask WTF? Far more productive, I’d think, than neighborhood gossip and WE Blog speculation.”
It still comes down to school districts are getting more money than they received last year.
There are a lot of people and business’s that would like to get more than they received last year.
The children are not going to suffer. Teachers and staff are getting raises as well as paid insurance. Most taxpayers are not getting raises and are doing without insurance.