Kansas schools short over a billion dollars

by Dakota Loomis
Kansas Democratic Party

Kansans already know that Governor Brownback has short-changed our schools since he took office, having cut funding over $100 million for public schools before cutting $66 million for higher education this year. 

This week though, it became painfully clear exactly how deep the hole is that the governor and his anti-education allies have created. Based upon estimates crafted by Brownback's own Kansas State Department of Education, Kansas schools are short a ‘mere’ $1.23 billion.

The governor's own budget numbers show that this year the governor is funding education $574 million below the statutory amount required. That number balloons to $656.7 million for fiscal year 2015.

This shocking gap in statutory education funding places Brownback and his GOP allies on a collision course with the Kansas Supreme Courtwho has already ruled once that Kansas schools are not being suitably funded.

Kansas courts this winter found Brownback had acted unconstitutionally when he failed to suitably fund education, choosing instead to pass out billions in tax breaks to the richest Kansans. The three judge panel even called Brownback's actions "illogical," arguing that the state can't claim that a weak economy forced education cuts be made while simultaneously handing out billions in tax breaks for the rich and big business.

Brownback and GOP lawmakers response to this rebuke has been to double-down on tax breaks for the rich and inaction on school funding. Now they are preparing themselves for a battle in 2014. GOP leaders admit as much, arguing that Kansas will see a "constitutional crisis" in 2014should the Kansas Supreme Court again find the state has funded education at an unconstitutional level.

In the end, the actions of GOP legislators and Governor Brownback have demonstrated that their top priority is protecting tax breaks for rich Kansans. That's why cuts have been made to K-12 education, higher education, and corrections. It's also why Brownback fought to raise taxes on working Kansans by $777 million this session.

At every turn Brownback has gutted programs and raised taxes to protect his ticket back to national prominence - experimental and reckless tax breaks for big business and the top 1%.

Brownback and company continue to protest this assertion, claiming to support education despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. While the evidence was already substantial, we just found 1.23 billion dollars in new evidence that contradict the governor's protestations and prove once again that the future of our children and our state matter less than Brownback's political ambition and dogmatic belief in trickle-down economics.

August 10, 2013