The Rose capacities are a set of statements outlining standards for educational achievement. Basically, students should be able to do this, that, the other, to be considered to have achieved an acceptable standard of education. They come from a 1989 Kentucky case, Rose v. Council for Better Education.

The Kansas Legislature's spring break is usually pretty quiet, but on Thursday of last week, the Kansas Supreme Court released their ruling on the final part of Gannon v. Kansas, the school funding lawsuit that was originally filed in 2010. The Court unanimously ruled that Kansas continues to Constitutionally underfund public education, and legislators must fix this by June 30 of this year.

This is the MainStream Coalition's statement on the ruling released March 2, 2017 by the Kansas Supreme Court with respect to Gannon v. Kansas. Further commentary and analysis will be in our weekly update on Monday.

Last week saw a new day in the Kansas Legislature. No, there were no landmark bills passed, no rolling back of ultra conservative policy. In fact, the Governor vetoed tax reform, ultimately sending the legislature back to the drawing board. But there were a set of significant turns that show how far we have come from just last year.

These are the hypocrites.

UPDATED: The Governor did veto the tax reform bill this morning. Just now, the Kansas House voted to override that veto! Now it is up to the KS Senate, and they will likely vote this afternoon. Email or call now to tell your Senator to override the veto on HB 2178!

Another quick action! A critical health care vote will happen tomorrow, Feb 22nd. The bill to expand health care coverage that was "tabled" yesterday by Brownback's allies, has been wrangled to the floor of the Kansas House of Representatives!

The Kansas Legislature's new moderate majority delivered tax reform to the Governor's desk today. You voted in new legislators who fought to make this bill a reality. The Governor has heard from them.

The big news last week was that the Kansas Legislature, both the House and the Senate, sent a tax reform bill to the Governor's desk. The next step is for the Governor to sign it, to veto it, or to not sign it and let it become law anyway. This is one step towards righting the ship in Kansas: remaining are closing this year's revenue gap (roughly $340 million) and passing a good school finance plan.

This is our testimony in favor of HB 2270, a school finance plan that includes early childhood education, is tied to CPI, and successfully handles different district needs. You can download our testimony here.