If you shortchange kids' education, they'll wind up dumber. Dumber people will make less income when they go to work. Less income means a lower standard of living, a loss far higher than the amount of money an individual would receive from a tax cut. Less income means a lower amount of taxes flowing into the State of Kansas. A double whammy if I ever saw one!
Kansas is unconstitutionally short-changing its students by underfunding educationneeds and must increase spending by about $400 million, a three-judge panel ruled unanimously on Friday.
The court said it was "illogical" for the state to argue that it could not adequately fund schools at the same time it slashed income taxes.
The ruling is the latest in a series of court victories for a group of public school districts, parents and students in Kansas who have demanded for years that the state provide more money for education.
A funding plan was devised for Kansas in 2006 through a settlement of a prior lawsuit but the groups filed suit again in 2010 when the state made an estimated $300 million in funding cuts. The state made even more cuts in 2011. There have been $511 million in cuts to the base funding between fiscal year 2009 and fiscal 2012.
"This is just a wonderful victory for these school kids in Kansas," said lawyer John Robb, whose firm represents the plaintiffs in the case, which was filed in Shawnee County District Court in Topeka, Kansas.
"The (state) constitution says they have rights to an adequately funded education," Robb said. "And the courts have said yes ... it means what it says."
HERE.
