By Rachel Whitten / (KansasReporter) TOPEKA, Kan. – The Kansas State School Board Tuesday recommended “funding the law” which would mean a $471 million increase in school spending over last year. The budget recommendation for the 2011-2012 school year will go on to the next governor and the legislature for final action during the session starting [...]

UPDATE: Changes 2010 spending of unencumbered funds to reflect revised report from USD259 Wichita. Gene Meyer/KansasReporter Kansas House Education Budget committee members voted Monday to give schools across the state more flexibility to replace their shares of $85.9 million federal educational stimulus money that is scheduled to vanish next year. Committee members approved and sent [...]

UPDATE: Changes 2010 spending to reflect revised report from USD259 Wichita. Public school districts in Kansas say they’ll spend $263 million more this year according to new data released by the Kansas Department of Education (KSDE). The results conflict sharply with district claims that spending has been severely reduced. But districts budgeted to spend $573 [...]

By Gene Meyer/KansasReporter TOPEKA, Kan. – More than eight in 10 Kansans oppose higher taxes for schools following a five-year, 26 percent increase in per-pupil aid, according to a new statewide survey released today. The finding, in a survey conducted by The Research Partnership of Wichita on behalf of KansasReporter, is significant because the levels [...]

Kansas educators and politicians who use false or misleading information to call for tax increases to fund education risk their credibility with the taxpaying public. If you go beyond the headlines and obligatory quotes from school administrators in most news stories about school funding to the reader comments you’ll find a lot of people who [...]

Protesters pushing for tax increases to end education funding cuts chanted, “We want what’s right, not what’s left” at the State Capitol Tuesday. What’s right and left out of the rhetoric of the protest speeches are the real numbers behind the pro-tax increase hype, the economic impact of tax increases, and potential savings still to [...]

About 400 people attended a Board Night Out at Wichita’s West High School Monday evening. A similar number attended another forum at Wichita’s Southeast High School. USD259 Wichita Board of Education President Barbara Fuller, board member Lanora Nolan and Superintendent John Allison attended the West High gathering and offered their assessments of the decisions facing [...]