How bad has the economic disaster Kansas Governor Sam Brownback has created gotten? Well, thanks to the his and his GOP-controlled legislature’s slashing of education funds and changing how money for education would be allocated, every public school in the Jayhawk State may be unable to open its doors.
The changes Brownback and the Kansas legislature made wound up before the Kansas Supreme Court, which recently ruled:
“Disparities among the districts remain inequitable and unconstitutional.”
Bottom line: the Governor and legislature have until June 30 to come up with another funding plan which is equitable or else children in Kansas will be on an extended Summer vacation which could well last deep into 2016. Children will no doubt be delighted if that happens, but parents will be livid.
You may recall that Brownback was elected with a promise of bringing economic prosperity to Kansas, but his plan of massive tax cuts has only driven the state deeper into debt and led to huge budget shortfalls. The old trickle-down economic theory has never–and will never–work, but Brownback remains a disciple of this failed economic policy which gained traction during the Reagan Administration.
Rather than properly fund the educational system in the state, the legislature merely moved money around from one place to another, leading to this crisis, as U.S. News and World Report noted:
“Because the plan guarantees that no district loses any aid it already has been promised for the next school year, most of them —including the four suing the state — would see no change in their aid overall. Twenty-three would see small increases, covered by the state tapping an existing pot of emergency school aid.”
It should be interesting to see how Brownback tries to spin this mess he’s created, but you can bet it will never ever be his fault.
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