Posted on 03/07/2014 8:35:07 AM PST by Olog-hai
The Kansas Supreme Court said Friday the states current public school funding levels are unconstitutional.
In the much-anticipated ruling, the court said Kansas poor school districts were harmed when the state made the decision to cut certain payments when tax revenues declined during the Great Recession.
The Supreme Court sent the case back to district court for more review to promptly determine what the adequate amount of funding should be, but didnt set a deadline for a hearing. It did, however, set a July 1 deadline for legislators to restore money for two funds aimed at helping poorer districts with capital improvements and general school operations.
A state Department of Education official estimates legislators must increase funding by $129 million, in addition to the more than $3 billion the state has budgeted for the 2014-2015 school year.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Courts should have no tax authority so, when they rule more money is needed, take from the judicial pool
The State of Kansas has always been an odd duck, politically speaking. I think they're addicted to government subsidies.
Well, hell, no need for a legislature or Governor any more, just let the gd lawyers in black robes do all the legislating!
That’s a good plan! /s
And what if they don't? Is they court going to order them locked up? Take upon itself the power to write legislation, levy taxes and distribute the revenue? What?
Did the idiots in the Kansas State Supreme Court spend some time vacationing on the New Jersey shore with New Jersey judges?
The New Jersey Public SChool system has Abbott School Districts - allegedly impoverished, undersupported urban rat holes which are funded by the hard working residents of the rest of the state in THEIR school taxes. The amount that goes to pay per pupil in these districts is SO HIGH that they state could have afforded to send every one of those students to PRIVATE school at less money! The reason? Top heavy priviledged administrative personnel in those districts who receive outrageous salaries and benefits.
SO, Kansans BEWARE!!!! Do whatever you can to foil the crackpots and social activists in your state courts or you too could wind up like New Jersey!!!
I think this may have started during Reagan. One of the disappointments was not challenging the Kansas SC’s order to increase school taxes.
The answer is simple, SELL The Courthouses and the properties they sit on, then setup TRAILERS in other State Owned parking lots for the courts to operate, complete with portable toilets.
Hope the Kansas Legislature has the guts to change the wording of the state constitution that allows this sort of finding by the courts.
That is an excellent idea.
just transfer requested funds from welfare funds to education. No not throw the extra burden on tax payers. Take some from Medicaid, food stamps, subsidized housing, and all the other goodies.
Someone explain the role of the courts to me again.
Once again the judiciary is usurping the role of the legislature in determining spending.
force the courts to have fiscal skin in the game. i like it.
Wow! Excellent chart and post! It tells all a person with a brain needs to know! I say, this chart proves beyond all doubt that we should close all government schools and send all teachers who can’t pass rigorous testing, and I do mean rigorous, back to kindergarten and let them try again and reapply when they can pass the RIGOROUS testing. Hand in glove with RIGOROUS testing to be outlawing the NEA and burning their DC edifice to the ground. Finally, all teachers to sign one year contracts that are “at will”. I would offer the CPA exams and Bar Exams as a model for Teacher exams as Teachers are at least as important as lawyers and accountants. And, like our medical doctors “continuing education classes and reviews” are part of the deal too. If we require such continuing testing of our doctors, why not teachers? Again, they are arguably as important, if not more so, than lawyers and accountants. Oh, and pay teachers a living wage which in some cases would be twice what they are getting today! With the funding changes I propose below, living wages for teachers will be affordable.
Then Fund vouchers to private schools that are allowed to go broke if they are not successful. Parents will “shut em down” ( with-hold their kid and voucher) if the teachers are as sorry as they are today (see your chart!!!!).
Basis for funding to be a wealth tax in each state. Meaning, anything and everything in a state is subject to a Voucher Education Tax (VET). Individuals, corporations, partnerships, LLC’s, big and small, foreign and domestic,......ALL WOULD PAY based upon appraised value, just like real estate is done today. Real estate tax goes to zero based upon unfairness alone but continues to be taxed inside the VET tax. People earning less than the poverty level MUST PAY too! No free rides! I don’t personally give a damn if they just pay $5.00! But, they pay something!
In this manner, the tax will be spread out over an infinitely wider base and not just piled on real estate as it is in Texas today. So, the tax per taxpayer will be a fraction of what it is today. Then, it takes a 2/3 vote in the legislature to raise the VET tax rate with the exclusion of teacher salary increase formulas to keep pace with inflation/deflation.
Until SOMETHING like the foregoing is done, and EDUCATION is taken away from the unions, democrats, marxists, communists and corrupt politicians, administrators AND some teachers, this country will continue its slide because EDUCATION is THAT IMPORTANT! We see that in LIV voting patterns each election.
Then, essentially, the same general policy MUST be applied to completely corrupt universities.
The General Assembly should simply ignore the KS Supreme Ct.
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I’m confused, as I really don’t know the Kansas Constitution. Does it say that schools have to have a certain amount of money spent on them?
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