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Charts, charts, and more charts
Dear Friends,
You can relax now! We are out of session and your liberty is safe once again. We go in for one more day, called Sine Die, on Thursday, June 4, to clean up any problems or possibly override vetoes.
In this newsletter I will focus on the budget and spending in education. I will address abortion, energy and other issues in future newsletters.
Briefly, the Senate passed the budget bill, 21 to 17. The House concurred with the Senate on the budget and the bill now is in front of our new governor, Mark Parkinson.
This budget leaves the state with almost no cash in the bank so even the slightest negative change in the Kansas economy could cause the Legislature to go back into a special session. I voted against the budget which I believe amounts to the Legislature putting bubblegum in the hole of a dam.
As you can see, when the federal money is no longer available, we will be looking over a steep cliff. Public schools need to be aware of the upcoming deficit and prepare by cutting their spending.
The chart below shows the percentage change every year for the past 11 years in educational spending. The changes are cumulative.
Enrollment tells another story. In 2005, Kansas included enrollment for military districts.
Most people don't mind their tax dollars going for education, but they want to know where the money is going and they would like to have more transparency. I offered an amendment to the budget that would simply require school districts to keep their check registers online, but the measure failed, 16-22. The votes are displayed here.
You can investigate further in the details listed on the Legislative Reports page on my website.
I will be sending out another newsletter soon on other subjects.
Mary Pilcher Cook
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