As schools plead with city to wait on pre-K plan, mayor sets a morning announcement

Wait!

That’s the cry from all 15 of the Kansas City area school districts that would be impacted by the pre-K sales tax proposal Mayor Sly James wants on the November ballot.

As a group, the districts on Thursday called for city leaders to hold off on putting the plan before voters, saying it needs more discussion.

That evening the mayor’s office announced that James will hold a press conference about the plan at 9:45 a.m. Friday at Union Station. A spokeswoman declined to give details.

A statement from the Cooperating School Districts of Greater Kansas City, released the day after James shared his 63-page implementation plan, pleads with officials to “consider postponing placement of the issue on the ballot.”

The group represents 31 metro-area districts, including the 15 that have some portion of their boundaries in Kansas City and stand to benefit from the money collected from the proposed 3/8-cent citywide sales tax to expand pre-kindergarten programs.

The group’s statement says that while it and all its member districts are “strong advocates of increased state funding of early childhood education,” they are concerned that area school districts would lose control and that a portion of taxpayer money would be diverted to private and parochial schools.

“Our districts’ superintendents were unaware of the proposal until May of this year,” said Gayden Carruth, the group’s executive director. She added that while some proposals were presented incrementally to school leaders, a final plan was made available only this week.

“It is extremely difficult to respond to the presented proposal when many questions remain unanswered,” Carruth said. “Early childhood is too important to our children and their families, and our organization’s school districts support getting it done right, not fast.”

Also on Thursday, the North Kansas City school district released a statement expressing concerns.

Superintendent Dan Clemens said the plan looks like a voucher program that would divert money from public schools. He also said public schools are not allowed to mix local tax-collected money with state funds, so, “It is questionable that any public or charter school in our area would even be able to accept funds generated through the tax.”

Clemens said his district “feels it is more important to make certain that all students would benefit from a pre-K program than to rush a flawed plan to the voters in November.”

On Wednesday the Kansas City Public School Board asked James to hold off on making pre-K a November ballot issue.

“To have this move at this rate is not in the best interest of school districts,” said Superintendent Mark Bedell.

James has said there is no compelling reason to wait until the April ballot, or later. Far more voters are expected to come to the polls this fall, he said, and the issues won’t change.

“The bottom line is we can keep putting it off and putting it off but it ain’t going to change,” he said.

The 15 school districts that would be affected by the plan are: Kansas City, Belton, Blue Springs, Center, Grandview, Hickman Mills, Independence, Kearney, Lee’s Summit, Liberty, North Kansas City, Park Hill, Platte County, Raytown and Smithville — all members of the the Cooperating School Districts of Greater Kansas City.

This story was originally published August 16, 2018 at 4:56 PM.