Kansas illegally underfunds poorer school districts, court rules - Polidicks

[IMG]http://www.trbimg.com/img-531ab9e1/turbine/la-apphoto-school-funding-fight-kansas-jpg-20140307/600[/IMG] [QUOTE]Wading into a battle being fought in state capitols across the nation, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that disparities in the public funding of school districts violate the state constitution. The court ordered Kansas to cure these disparities by July 1 and asked a lower court to evaluate how much the state should be investing in public schools. It was not quite the slam-dunk ruling that school funding advocates had hoped for; the court did not set funding levels, as a lower court had. But education advocates, who have been battling the Kansas Legislature on school funding levels for more than a decade, cheered the ruling nonetheless. "It's a good day to be a Kansan," said Annie McKay, the executive director of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth, which advocates for state funding for services. Legislatures in many states, including Kansas, began reducing school funding in 2009 during the economic recession. Although methods of funding schools vary by state, many states rely heavily on local property taxes, which causes disparities between poor and wealthy districts. Most states attempt to remedy those disparities by raising state funds to disburse to poorer districts. As the recession hit, Kansas began to reduce those state payments, making poorer school districts scramble for adequate funding. The reductions in state aid, the state's high court ruled Friday, "established unconstitutional, wealth-based disparities." The lawsuit, Gannon vs. State of Kansas, was filed in 2010 by four school districts and 31 students who argued that the state's failure to provide "suitable" funding for that education violated their rights to an education under the state constitution. Kansas countered that increasing school funding did not necessarily improve education quality, and that schools were receiving record amounts of money when federal and other funds were taken into account. In the meantime, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, who is up for reelection this year, signed into law two rounds of income tax cuts, further frustrating parents who wanted to see more state spending rather than less. In January 2013, a three-judge panel ruled on the side of the school districts, saying that it was "completely illogical" for the state to cut taxes while blaming an economic downturn for spending cuts. It ordered lawmakers to raise base state aid per pupil to $4,492 from $3,838. The state appealed that ruling. The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the school districts had shown that funding reductions hurt their ability to do what the constitution requires them to do: "maintain, develop and operate local public schools." It ordered the state to resume aiding schools by July 1. Kansas, which is governed by a conservative Legislature and governor, has been loath to increase spending even as the economy rebounded from the recession. The state's general fund will bring in $5.9 billion in revenue in 2014, more than the $5.7 billion it made in 2008, according to data from the National Assn. of State Budget Officers. But it will spend less — $5.9 billion this year, compared with the $6.1 billion it spent in 2008. According to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, D.C., think tank, Kansas is spending 16.5%, or $950, less per student on education in 2014 than it did in 2008.[/QUOTE] [url=http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-kansas-schools-20140308,0,5562455.story#ixzz2vOuKwAL9] Article[/url] My state is okay i guess.

Because the poor need [B]less [/B]money! Of course! It's a damn good thing this has been dealt with.

[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;44171590]Because the poor need [B]less [/B]money! Of course! It's a damn good thing this has been dealt with.[/QUOTE] Obviously they don't want money, or they'd have it! But yeah good it's been found out

doesnt seem to mention which districts

Isn't this really common all over the place in the US? It seems like all the poor neighborhoods have really shitty schools, which sucks because if the schools are bad they have less quality of education, which means they have less of a chance to climb out of poverty with a scholarship to a college or something like that.

I wish they'd do an investigation into school district 205 [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/hfvXvbe.png[/IMG] The next county over is 70% and I could only find 2 districts in the entire state that were close to how low these numbers are, and they are still higher. if you want to see for yourself [url]http://globalreportcard.org/map.html#[/url] Illinois > winnebago > rockford and you can compare it to other places. Specifically, the high school I went to [url]http://www.city-data.com/school/jefferson-high-school-il.html[/url] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ldy22T3.png[/IMG] The drop out rate the year I dropped out was 49% meaning that damn near half of all freshman coming in would drop out before they were due to graduate. You can see that as you narrow the focus on district 205 and specifically the high schools in Rockford the rating drops off significantly to some of the worst in entire country.

[QUOTE=cis.joshb;44172351]Isn't this really common all over the place in the US? It seems like all the poor neighborhoods have really shitty schools, which sucks because if the schools are bad they have less quality of education, which means they have less of a chance to climb out of poverty with a scholarship to a college or something like that.[/QUOTE] The thing is, there is a legal threshold to how shitty a school can get. Schools are funded by three things: federal, state, and local taxes. Many richer localities can dish out more cash to make their public schools good, so the other types of funding are cut back a bit (because they can be) and reallocated somewhere else. In neighborhoods that can't afford the local taxes to make the public schools good, they rely nearly entirely on federal and state funding - and if those are cut back below the minimum, something like this happens.

Tax break for the rich, While less money for education.

[QUOTE=Aide;44172404]Tax break for the rich, While less money for education.[/QUOTE]It's incredible isn't it, makes you really question if it's real or not it sounds so ridiculous and crazy

[QUOTE=Killer900;44172421]It's incredible isn't it, makes you really question if it's real or not it sounds so ridiculous and crazy[/QUOTE] Problem I had after reading two separate articles on this is that they been cutting/de-funding continuously over the years. As if theirs no such thing as inflation taking place, since the court ruling in '05 in Kansas.

[QUOTE=cis.joshb;44172351]Isn't this really common all over the place in the US? It seems like all the poor neighborhoods have really shitty schools, which sucks because if the schools are bad they have less quality of education, which means they have less of a chance to climb out of poverty with a scholarship to a college or something like that.[/QUOTE] Sort of, see around here it's most common for the schools that do the best in terms of grades and graduation to get more funding, and sometimes to completely close down schools that are doing poorly. Of course the problem with that is that then you get feedback loops where the poorer schools just get worse and worse.

whereas here in the UK we legally underfund schools in poor districts seriously its disgusting seeing some of the schools my southern friends went to in comparison to mine

Why do I live here?

Oldest GOP strategy in the books. Defund a public institution, then blame the institution for poor performance, paving the way for privatization. What's sad is that many self-proclaimed liberals fall for this shit. Hell, a lot of liberals support it outright (looking at you, Rahm). [editline]9th March 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Noss;44172637]whereas here in the UK we legally underfund schools in poor districts seriously its disgusting seeing some of the schools my southern friends went to in comparison to mine[/QUOTE] I don't know if it's just me, but every dude that comes out of your private (public?) school system sound as if they have a nasal infection. They have this really whiny, stuffy voice. Weird.

[QUOTE=ThreePennyJim;44176322]Oldest GOP strategy in the books. Defund a public institution, then blame the institution for poor performance, paving the way for privatization. [/QUOTE] Even though it sounds like a conspiracy theory, there is a lot of justification for this theory. Indiana's GOP-dominated government has been hacking away at public schools for years, and now they've launched a voucher program to steal more money from public schools and send it to private, mostly religious schools, in the name of "giving kids the choice of a better education". Of course private schools look better, they haven't had their funding slashed every year!

[QUOTE=Biotoxsin;44176245]Why do I live here?[/QUOTE] Why not leave?

I live in kentucky, and my high school that I gradurated from is called Southern High School, it's part of the jefferson county schools, I gradurated at 2008. [editline]9th March 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=J!NX;44176498]Why not leave?[/QUOTE] not that easy, money is required and hard to obtain on minimum wage job, and moving out somewhere and trying to find an apartment is quite expansive.

[QUOTE=frozensoda;44172369]I wish they'd do an investigation into school district 205 [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/hfvXvbe.png[/IMG] The next county over is 70% and I could only find 2 districts in the entire state that were close to how low these numbers are, and they are still higher. if you want to see for yourself [url]http://globalreportcard.org/map.html#[/url] Illinois > winnebago > rockford and you can compare it to other places. Specifically, the high school I went to [url]http://www.city-data.com/school/jefferson-high-school-il.html[/url] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ldy22T3.png[/IMG] The drop out rate the year I dropped out was 49% meaning that damn near half of all freshman coming in would drop out before they were due to graduate. You can see that as you narrow the focus on district 205 and specifically the high schools in Rockford the rating drops off significantly to some of the worst in entire country.[/QUOTE] Illinois schools in general are just really bad. The elementary district in my town is getting shafted because they aren't getting all the government money they should be, so we went from 4 K-5 schools and one 6-8 school from just a couple years ago to now having 3 K-4 schools and one 5-8 school. So many teachers have been laid off, the sports and arts programs are being taken out, it's just a mess.

[QUOTE=J!NX;44176498]Why not leave?[/QUOTE] Hard to move when you're a full time student living on loans and little more than minimum wage.

[QUOTE=Biotoxsin;44183765]Hard to move when you're a full time student living on loans and little more than minimum wage.[/QUOTE] yeah, you're screwed I'm sorry for your loss

[QUOTE=cardfan212;44176783]Illinois schools in general are just really bad. The elementary district in my town is getting shafted because they aren't getting all the government money they should be, so we went from 4 K-5 schools and one 6-8 school from just a couple years ago to now having 3 K-4 schools and one 5-8 school. So many teachers have been laid off, the sports and arts programs are being taken out, it's just a mess.[/QUOTE] Sports and arts should be some of the first things you cut if something has to go.

[QUOTE=cis.joshb;44172351]Isn't this really common all over the place in the US? It seems like all the poor neighborhoods have really shitty schools, which sucks because if the schools are bad they have less quality of education, which means they have less of a chance to climb out of poverty with a scholarship to a college or something like that.[/QUOTE] because that's exactly what the people in power want- to keep poor people poor with no hope of escaping it.