News from Brownbackistan: Real possibility now that schools won't open in August

[deminks]

That will solve the bathroom 'issue', now won't it, GOPers?

Court ruling raises possibility Kansas schools will not open

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/court-ruling-raises-possibility-kansas-schools-will-not-open/

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas faces a threat that its public schools won’t open for the next school year after the state Supreme Court rejected some education funding changes made by the Republican-dominated Legislature.

The Legislature had revised parts of the state’s school finance system but didn’t change the overall aid for most of its 286 local districts. The court said Friday that the remaining flaws make the system unfair to poor districts, violating the state constitution.

(snip)

Why were legislators making school funding changes?

The Dodge City, Hutchinson, Wichita and Kansas City, Kansas, school districts sued the state over education funding in 2010. That’s prompted a series of court rulings, including one from the Supreme Court in February to make the funding system fairer for poor districts.

The court in February set a deadline of June 30 for lawmakers to fix the problems, or face having schools remain closed afterward. GOP legislators pushed through their changes in March in hopes of averting the threat.

What was at issue in the rulings in February and Friday?

It’s known as “equity,” whether poor districts are getting their fair share of the state’s aid to public schools, which now stands at more than $4 billion a year. The Supreme Court has said that the state constitution requires legislators to finance a suitable education for all children, whether they live in poor or rich neighborhoods.

(end snip)

GOPers are bad for Kansas, and they are bad for the nation.

[liberal N proud]

1. The teabaggers and their GOP minions will call it mission accomplished

Then they can privatize the education system.

[jalan48]

8. You got it!

De-fund public programs and obstruct government to the point where it does not function. Then claim, "Government doesn't work" and privatize most of it. Poor schools mean dumber people who will be unable to understand what's going on in the country. Dumb people who will willing fall for the "We're broke & that's Communism!" propaganda of the .1%.

[Nay]

15. It's obviously what a majority of Kansans want, or they wouldn't keep voting

these ghouls back in. What can you say about people who cut their own throats? And the throats of their own children?

[liberal N proud]

21. Gerrymandering has preserved the insanity of ultra CONservative legislators.

[lindysalsagal]

23. gerrymandering is ruining the whole country, on every issue. Election reform

is the answer to so many of our problems.

[Hortensis]

29. This is Kansas, Kochestan. Look first to them.

The Kochs are opposed to both mandatory education and public funding of education, and Kansas is their home territory. If Charles Koch, especially, gets control of SCOTUS, he'll drop the state-by-state bit and make mandatory education unconstitutional nationally--all in the name of individual freedom of course.

[Feathery Scout]

2. Bleeding Kansas once again. GOP red, that is.

[demtenjeep]

3. i hate brownback

I am a teacher of Social Studies and my class rocks but to me history is just more than dates and names. It is the stories of time. Students do better when they can create and interact and connect the past to their lives. To make it connect to them. In my class, we do a lot of hands-on activities that result in finished products that show the world what they have learned.

Due to Sam Brownback's disastrous policies teachers no longer have budgets to bring the 'extras' needed to make their classroos COME ALIVE . Teachers in our district have not had a raise in 8 years yet the bills continue to rise. Because we love our students, we spend what is necessary to help foster student engagement.

For the last 5 years, I had been teaching in a setting that did not allow for hands on project based learning. Due to Sam Brownback and his hatred toward Kansas schools, my former program -which did such good for my students-was closed. Since my program was closed, I was placed into a middle school US History class needing to start all over.

Teachers no longer get classroom budgets to help them enhance the learning experience. I refuse to be 'that teacher' who reads everything strictly out of the book. I want my students to experience activities ...not read about them. As a result, i am asking anyone that feels a need, to help me fund my new classroom.

THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH.

I KNOW THERE ARE WONDERFUL PEOPLE THAT SHARE THE BURDEN OF EDUCATING THE FUTURE.


https://www.gofundme.com/26wffbg

[perdita9]

11. Why did your fellow citizens vote for Brownback?

Can't they see the damage he's done?

[demtenjeep]

19. no one i ever talk to admits to voting for the son of a bitch

just this year, our district had to come up with 25 million in cuts and that is before the shut down

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

26. Because those damn gays, colored folks and atheists keep ruining their life.

And Governor Brownshirt, no matter what, hates them too, so......

[Enthusiast]

16. Brownback puts me in mind of a corrupt televangelist.

Here in Ohio Kasich has a similar level of disdain for teachers. Our students and schools have suffered accordingly. It's education Grover Norquist style.

[TeamPooka]

4. If Democrats don't unite in November behind the nominee (Bernie or Hillary) our nation

will become Kansas.

[Delmette]

7. You're right!

+1000.

[SheilaT]

5. Every single school in the state?

Whoa! That's terrible.

I used to live in Kansas, and as far back as the mid 90's the state Supreme Court said the state was deliberately and systematically underfunding the schools.

[demtenjeep]

9. https://www.gofundme.com/26wffbg

yup

we were advised to take the lump sum payment on June 20 just in case

[greiner3]

6. Courts ruled here in OH that school funding be totally funded by the state's general fund

No progress and the judge then held the legislature in contempt. The result: no law so the legislature says fuck you judge

[perdita9]

10. Kansans voted the bread out of their own mouths

It's hard for me to feel sympathetic now that their facing the consequences of their actions

[elmac]

17. I feel the same way

I feel no sympathy for a population that votes against their own well being. Its call religious fanaticism at any cost. They made their choice, now they need to live with it.

[KSstellarcat]

18. So eff the children of Kansas...

...along with almost half of the population who didn't vote for that idiot? I get tired of this type of response. If Trump wins, do we just say "well, screw the U.S., they voted him in?"

[perdita9]

25. What do you suggest?

That the federal government come in and fund your schools and feed your children? Kansas elected Brownback twice. Why should blue states use their tax dollars to bail out Kansas while tax breaks for corporations and millionaires stay in place?

[KSstellarcat]

27. I don't suggest anything of the sort. Perhaps you could show

A little empathy for those of us who do live in Kansas who were not responsible for voting that assclown into office? I get it. There are a bunch of right wing, low info voters here. They elected this nightmare, along with electing the crazy legislature. How is it helpful to respond in a condescending manner insinuating that all Kansans deserve this situation? Especially the children, who have no say in the matter and suffer the most? I don't have any ideas of how to solve this problem, honestly...and no, I don't expect the mighty blue states to bail us out. I was simply trying to offer an analogy of how the "they voted him in so they deserve it" response feels to those of us who live here.

[perdita9]

28. You have my sympathy...

...but I fear your citizens will not start making smarter choices at the voting booth until they feel the consequences of their actions.

[KSstellarcat]

33. I fear that they won't make smarter choices regardless.

Meanwhile, the kids suffer.

[demtenjeep]

20. thanks a lot

i or none of my family and friends or students voted for this asshat

we don't deserve it

[elmac]

22. Voting or not voting has consequences

It will take a lot of pain before things get bad enough & these religious fanatics are finally driven out of states and country.

[Oneironaut]

12. Hahaha! Bs...

Once again, children are puppets in their agenda. It's sick.

[lindysalsagal]

24. children can't vote. They know that.

[Enthusiast]

14. But all those tax cuts will result in thousands of new jobs!

Children won't need school they can just go straight to work.

[Scientific]

30. Republicans screw up everything they touch

[Vinca]

31. I wish the MSM would cover these GOP-led disasters.

Every time they get in control they totally screw things up. State or federal. Every time.

[bonzo925]

32. Brownie made his bed

now its time to lie in it

[muriel_volestrangler]

34. Kansas Senate condemns federal transgender guidance, ignores school closures on final day

The resolution became entwined in a debate over school funding. GOP lawmakers opted not to respond Wednesday to a Friday state Supreme Court ruling that found funding unconstitutionally inequitable. The decision drew criticism from Democrats.

“If we are truly concerned about keeping schools open in August, we should have used this sine die session to appropriate the required amount of money — in this case, $38 million — for school funding equity rather than waste taxpayers’ dollars on an election-year charade over which bathroom students should use,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka.

Wagle said the Legislature wasn’t ignoring the ruling but had chosen not to act at this time. Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Nickerson, also pushed back against criticism for responding to the transgender guidance but not the Supreme Court ruling.

http://cjonline.com/news/2016-06-01/kansas-senate-condemns-federal-transgender-guidance-state-joins-lawsuit

"Wasn’t ignoring the ruling but had chosen not to act at this time" - it's the last day of the session. You did ignore it, fuckhead.

[deminks]

35. Wagle is a real piece of Koch work, isn't she? nt