To keep our parents, students, staff, and patrons informed of issues regarding school finance, we have created this Legislative Information page.  It is important that we, as a community, continue to educate ourselves about the issues involved in funding education locally and statewide to ensure the best futures for our students.

Legislative Goals for 2019

Click here for a downloadable PDF version of our Legislative Goals.

Kansas Legislative Goals

The Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools (KCKPS) has a goal of graduating each student prepared for college and careers in a global society. This legislative platform seeks to ensure that the Kansas Legislature works to provide the conditions necessary for all students in KCKPS (and across the state of Kansas) to be successful. To accomplish this, the district asks the Legislature to:

1. Provide a fair and equitable school funding formula that meets the constitutional test for adequacy, and is distributed in an equitable manner, by:
   1. Continuing to fund years 2 thru 5 of the multi year plan approved last session and fund the additional inflationary cost for years 2 thru 5 identified by the Kansas Supreme Court in its June 2018 ruling in order to make the school finance formula constitutionally adequate. We believe the additional inflationary amount placed on the base will provide KCKPS and all Kansas school districts with the resources necessary to prepare students for college and careers in a global society.
   2. Ensuring that school funding in Kansas continues to be directly related to what it actually costs to educate specific students, so that districts can continue to receive the funds they need to serve the students they serve. This includes advocating that at-risk funding continues to be based on family income.
   3. Ensuring that any increase in the Local Option Budget is equalized at 100% without proration thereby reducing pressure on the local property tax.
   4. Ensuring all students begin school ready to learn by providing additional funding for early childhood education.
   5. Revisiting legislation passed in the 2017 Legislative Session, which restricts the opportunity of local districts to support a bond project, through the imposition of an arbitrary and outdated funding cap. It is critical that the success or failure of bond elections in other districts not impact the opportunity of districts to exercise local control and ownership.
2. Oppose any attempt to weaken the support for or functioning of public schools in Kansas through:
   1. An attempt to change Article 6 of the Kansas Constitution, to remove the requirement that “The legislature shall make suitable provision for finance of the educational interests of the state.”
   2. The use of public dollars and tax credits to fund private schools while supporting the requirement that any school that receives public funds must meet state and federal accountability standards and provide programs/services required of public schools).
   3. Any attempt to alter the constitutional requirement that public schools be operated by locally elected boards of education.
3. Ensure that any response to a future fiscal crisis does not negatively affect the solvency of the KPERS system.
4. Resist all attempts to take established revenues away from local governments in order to balance the state budget. Specifically, changes in state tax policy should not occur at the expense of local governments by shifting responsibilities and fiscal obligations from the state to cities and counties, K-12 education or higher education. This includes opposing any mandated state-wide health insurance or purchasing programs that eliminate local control and ability to manage costs.
5. Support the continuation of non-partisan school board elections.

Wyandotte County Legislators:

Click on the legislator’s name to open his/her webpage at www.kslegislature.org.

A complete list of legislators for the state of Kansas is available at www.kslegislature.org.