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A push for additional millions for K-12 education is an ill-timed attack on strapped taxpayers.
Schools for Fair Funding is coming back. Is anyone else feeling the suction on their wallets?
Yes, the group with the unending appetite for taxpayer dollars has filed another lawsuit aimed at forcing the Kansas Legislature to increase funding for public schools.
SFF, which represents 72 Kansas school districts (USD 443 being one of the 72), gave notice in June that it was preparing to sue as early as October. When that happened, SFF was officially kicking Kansas taxpayers while they're down.
The schools group, whose previous lawsuit against the state forced the Kansas Legislature to approve an $892 million increase in funding beginning in 2006, loaded up again when lawmakers reduced school funding more than $300 million during the past two years.
Yes, legislators were dealing with a disastrous fiscal combination — a major drop in tax revenues due to the recession on one hand, and the huge increase in school funding on the other. Yes, lawmakers made major cuts across the board to get the budget in order. Many of the state's most vulnerable residents — the disabled and the elderly among them — were directly affected.
However, SFF is going after state funding with hands wide open, regardless of the state of the economy. Attorneys for the group claim education now is "chronically underfunded." Meanwhile, the Department of Education says the state would have to increase funding by $417 million to get back to 2008 levels.
How can legislators come up with $417 million with the state still in the tight grip of the recession? How much more can Kansas taxpayers be expected to give, with many either jobless or earning less than they were before the recession? Example: Hawker Beechcraft in Wichita.
SFF's actions would strongly suggest it doesn't care. Yes, the organization heeded a plea last session from Gov. Mark Parkinson to give legislators time to work out a funding solution. In a recent story by the Associated Press, one of the attorneys sniffed at proposals to change the funding formula or make changes in it in order to improve the situation. "The formula isn't broken if they would just fund the formula," said the attorney, John Robb. "If they don't, it's not going to work."
Here we go again, it would appear — another lawsuit from publicly funded districts spending taxpayer dollars in pursuit of more public funding. It was outrageous the first time around and more so the second time around.
Kansans are not opposed to schools being fairly funded. Most certainly they are not. However, taxpayers deserve fair treatment too. Suing to suck hundreds of millions of dollars out of taxpayer pockets — in a lingering recession, no less — isn't fair at all.
A push for additional millions for K-12 education is an ill-timed attack on strapped taxpayers.
Schools for Fair Funding is coming back. Is anyone else feeling the suction on their wallets?
Yes, the group with the unending appetite for taxpayer dollars has filed another lawsuit aimed at forcing the Kansas Legislature to increase funding for public schools.
SFF, which represents 72 Kansas school districts (USD 443 being one of the 72), gave notice in June that it was preparing to sue as early as October. When that happened, SFF was officially kicking Kansas taxpayers while they're down.
The schools group, whose previous lawsuit against the state forced the Kansas Legislature to approve an $892 million increase in funding beginning in 2006, loaded up again when lawmakers reduced school funding more than $300 million during the past two years.
Yes, legislators were dealing with a disastrous fiscal combination — a major drop in tax revenues due to the recession on one hand, and the huge increase in school funding on the other. Yes, lawmakers made major cuts across the board to get the budget in order. Many of the state's most vulnerable residents — the disabled and the elderly among them — were directly affected.
However, SFF is going after state funding with hands wide open, regardless of the state of the economy. Attorneys for the group claim education now is "chronically underfunded." Meanwhile, the Department of Education says the state would have to increase funding by $417 million to get back to 2008 levels.
How can legislators come up with $417 million with the state still in the tight grip of the recession? How much more can Kansas taxpayers be expected to give, with many either jobless or earning less than they were before the recession? Example: Hawker Beechcraft in Wichita.
SFF's actions would strongly suggest it doesn't care. Yes, the organization heeded a plea last session from Gov. Mark Parkinson to give legislators time to work out a funding solution. In a recent story by the Associated Press, one of the attorneys sniffed at proposals to change the funding formula or make changes in it in order to improve the situation. "The formula isn't broken if they would just fund the formula," said the attorney, John Robb. "If they don't, it's not going to work."
Here we go again, it would appear — another lawsuit from publicly funded districts spending taxpayer dollars in pursuit of more public funding. It was outrageous the first time around and more so the second time around.
Kansans are not opposed to schools being fairly funded. Most certainly they are not. However, taxpayers deserve fair treatment too. Suing to suck hundreds of millions of dollars out of taxpayer pockets — in a lingering recession, no less — isn't fair at all.
