What will it take to get you to vote? Or your friends? Your family? Which issue is most important to you? Is it education? Then this week's report from the Kansas Center for Economic Growth should set you to organizing a voting party on November 4.
In the report released this week, the Center notes that schools are continuing to suffer under the revenue crash caused by Governor Brownback's tax cuts. Their list of results of the tax cuts includes: more students; fewer teachers; more at-risk students with less funding; less teacher training; higher property taxes; shrinking cash reserves; and a loss of extracurriculars like sports and the arts.
It is important to note that the year 2009, which marks the end of the recession, was not when education finances were originally slashed. That happened when the recession was in full swing, under Governor Parkinson. But the promise was made that this was a tightening of all belts, and when the economy recovered, education would be treated fairly.
That did not happen under the Brownback Administration. Instead of restoring the funding, he enacted his now infamous tax cuts, resulting in continued defunding of our public schools. As if that wasn't enough, he has continued to attack education in the years that followed, taking education money and giving it to corporations, shuffling money in and out of budget ledgers, bundling non-education funds and calling it new education spending, and finally taking away teacher protections in them idle of the night.
Well, the results of these broken promises, of this continued dismissal of the importance of education, are visible in our classrooms, and in this report from the Center for Economic Growth.
Read it here: Quality at Risk: The Impact of Education Cuts
Need to catch up on education issues? Here are some recent stories.
- Facts about Kansas school funding: up, down, or flat? - Tallman Report
- Why Sam Brownback is not an education governor - Kansas City Star
- Fresh look at schools - The Wichita Eagle
- School funding looks to be key issue in governor's race - Hays Post/Hawvers
