From Mr. Shearon, I will try to keep this as non-partisan as possible and just present the facts as they are. As you might have heard, the Kansas Supreme Court recently ruled that the legislature has not been funding schools equitably. In other words, wealthy districts were inequitably able to provide more for their students than poorer school districts. To that end, that is why state aid had been equalized. Not that every school district would have exactly the same things as other school district, but at least through formulas of equalization - wealthy and poor districts - were able to provide equitable educational opportunities. That had been changed over the past several years. Just this week, the Kansas Legislature has begun to propose bills to address this issue. One way they are proposing to provide more money in one fund to help equalize funding is to reduce the amount provided for transportation. For Burrton, that is a proposed loss of about $7,000 in transportation reimbursement. From what I have heard this is evidently based on a cost study done back in 2006. I believe the cost of gas, oil, etc. has risen since then. A propose bill is also floating out there that fixes the equity issue by allowing poorer communities the opportunity to tax the property of their citizens at a higher rate than wealthier communities. (See the AP article that follows). TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican leaders in the Kansas Senate have outlined a new school funding plan that would give local districts extra authority to increase property taxes to supplement their state funds. GOP leaders unveiled the plan Wednesday in a caucus of Republican senators. The plan is designed to meet a Kansas Supreme Court mandate for the state to boost aid to poor districts. The proposal would provide $134 million to poor districts. It would allow school districts to use property taxes to raise a local option budget of 33 percent. The state currently allows 31 percent. ---------- (Editorial Statement) In all....not equitable for the kids of Kansas or a good plan for Burrton; and taking money from one fund to put into another is not providing more funding. Just my thoughts.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 15:55:54 +0000
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