Gov. Brownback has continued to insist that his block grant
funding plan for local schools was more than adequate in spite
of startling evidence that makes him a skinflint. And in spite
of a court ruling that the plan is unconstitutional rubbish.
That plan, passed in March, abolished the1992 school
finance formula that based school finance on student numbers
and needs. The new plan ordered block grant funding that first
cut $50 million in annual operating and maintenance funds for
the poorest (read: rural) districts; it also froze district funding
levels for 2016 and 2017.
A three-judge panel ruled June 26 that the plan failed to
bring funding equity for poor school districts, and it failed
overall to provide adequate financing for all schools.
What we have now is confusion – whether the legislature
or the governor will take even a sliver of heed to the Court’s
ruling, and its order to refund immediately the $50 million
stolen from poor districts, or simply introduce legislation to
abolish the courts, or schools, or both. Meanwhile, the attorney
general dutifully appeals.
But what has happened so far cannot be undone, or the
damage repaired. The threats to local education continue.
Consider:
At least eight school districts, including Haven and Smoky
Valley, were forced to shorten their academic year; their
funds, limited by the new plan, had run out.
In cases that continue to mount, school superintendents
have either resigned, cut their own pay or doubled their
workload in order to keep schools open. Mike Sanders, the
Skyline Schools superintendent, resigned because the district
could not afford his $81,000 salary. Larry Lysell, a longtime
administrator in rural schools, has again become superintendent
of two rural districts – Palco USD 269 in Rooks County,
and Healy USD 468 in Lane County. It’s the second time for
Lysell, who was the state’s first dual-district superintendent
beginning in the 1992-93 school year at the Wheatland and
Quinter school districts in Gove County.
