Tell Governor Colyer to Support Equitable Funding of Public Schools. Call his Office of Constituent Services / Government Affairs at 785-368-8500.

From his most recent speech to legislators, it appears he is open to proper funding of public schools, but we need him to hear from us that:

• proper funding means coming up with a number that more closely matches the proposal of $900 million over two years by the Kansas State Board of Education and
• equitable funding means there’s no preferential treatment of certain schools districts.

Background:

The saga of school funding continues in our state.

Although the Kansas State Board of Education proposed school funding be increased by nearly $900 million over two years, the Kansas Legislature in June, 2017 passed a school finance measure that was signed into law which would increase education funding by only $293 million over two years.

In October, 2017, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that this new law was unconstitutional because it didn’t equally provide education to all children across the state.

To add to this confusion, last month, at his final State of the State speech, Brownback called for an additional $600 million over five years, but didn’t lay out exactly how the state would reach this number. Would he "borrow" it from other departments, while preventing proper wagers from being paid to state employees and roads from being built or fixed?

So, back to the drawing board.

Brownback resigned and now Colyer is the new governor. In his first speech to the legislators on Wednesday, February 7, he stated any school funding bill that crosses his desk must meet these four objectives:

• Keep schools open
• End future litigation
• Phase in an increase in K-12 funding and
• Improve educational outcomes through stricter accountability standards

It appears he is open to proper funding of public schools, but we need him to hear from us. Call his Office of Constituent Services / Government Affairs at 785-368-8500 and tell him to support proper funding of our public schools.