Enough already! News that Schools for Fair Funding is considering suing the state again to restore the funding cuts facing K-12 schools is enough to turn our stomachs.
The attitude of the group of 57 school districts appears to be that they don’t care about anyone other than themselves. It is selfish, and we believe it is wrong. Most of us scold our kids for refusing to share, but Schools for Fair Funding doesn’t care to share at all.
They want the state to spend the same amount as it did in the summer of 2005 even though it has less money. The newest estimate shows the state will have 5 percent less to spend in the current fiscal year that it did last year. And next year it will have 2.3 percent less than this year. Simply put, the state doesn’t have as much to spend.
Don’t get us wrong. We believe in our kids, and we believe in strong schools. It pains us to see school funding cut, but we don’t like seeing highway money cut either. Everyone is seeing reductions right now. About $2.55 of every $5 in state money goes to funding K-12. That is a lot. After our universities are funded – and they have also seen cuts – there is about $1.78 remaining to pay for roads and bridges, prisons, law enforcement, agriculture, human services and everything else. That isn’t a lot, and if the school group has its way it will be less.
For those who believe we should simply cut government as a way to restore school funding cuts, there isn’t much there. Only 21 cents of that $5 goes to central governance, and the number of state employees hasn’t increased since 2003 according to state budget department statistics.
Rep. Julie Menghini hopes to remove $200 million in sales tax exemptions in the state budget as a way to reverse some cuts while avoiding increased personal taxes. We aren’t sure that is the best thing. Businesses are already shedding too many jobs or cutting work hours because of their own budget cuts.
October unemployment numbers are set to be released tomorrow, but at the end of September, Crawford County unemployment was 17 percent higher than the state average. Cherokee County was even higher. Nearly 200,000 people in Kansas were collecting unemployment. Locally, 20 percent of those responding to our informal online poll this week said they had either seen their hours reduced or pay cut during the recent economic downturn.
To the credit of our local schools, most seem to understand. While final decisions haven’t been made whether to participate in a new lawsuit, there is a hesitation that we appreciate. Pittsburg schools superintendent Destry Brown acknowledged that “everyone is hurting for money right now,” and Frontenac superintendent Dale Slagle noted that the “state’s in a bit of a pickle.”
We wish the coalition would realize the same thing. Now is not the time for threats and lawsuits. Now is the time for thoughts, ideas, sharing and cooperation. We must pull together. Suing the state to get “blood out of a turnip” is just selfish.
Stephen Wade, for The Morning Sun
