Schools are everything to Johnson County. Don’t let Topeka strip away their funding
Ask a Johnson County voter, “What’s important to you when it comes to local government?” and you’ll hear one answer over and over again:
Schools.
Schools.
Schools.
As we knocked thousands of doors last year during our campaigns for Overland Park City Council, we heard from voters of all ages that our public schools are their top priority. People who grew up here choose to stay, and people from throughout the state and region choose to make Johnson County their home because they want their children to receive a top-notch public education. Major employers choose to locate here because they know the kind of educated talent they hire will only choose a job that allows them to educate their families.
Our schools are the core of our successful community. That’s why proposed legislation in Topeka is so troubling. Compromising quality public education would threaten our prosperity and our quality of life.
We are calling on every elected official from Johnson County to fight for our schools, which means preserving public funds for public schools and supporting teachers.
Public dollars should serve public schools. Vouchers in the form of Education Savings Accounts would divert public funds to private schools that don’t have to accept all students, are not required to retain academically struggling students and are not held to the same accountability and accreditation standards as public schools. The Kansas director of the budget estimated the cost to administer the program at more than $1 million annually. And for every 1% of Kansas kids that participate, $22.5 million in public funds would be transferred away from public schools to fund private and parochial school tuition.
Our schools can’t afford to lose any funding to vouchers. After years of unconstitutionally low funding, we will finally be fully funded in 2023. At that point, Kansas schools will be funded at 2009 levels, adjusted for inflation. The state has also never met its mandated obligation to fund 92% of special education expenses. That leaves districts like Shawnee Mission and Blue Valley, where our children attend school, with $8 million and $9 million respectively in unfunded obligations that must be funded by robbing other areas of the already constrained budget.
We must support our teachers. They are heroes. They have weathered this pandemic and every challenge it has put before them without wavering in their commitment to their students. They have adapted to each iteration of pandemic learning and done it with smiles on their faces. Demands for “transparency” ring hollow when every teacher we encounter welcomes parents in their classrooms to see learners in action. Our teachers need to use their talents on our children, not on endless busywork for parents more interested in undermining what they’re doing than understanding it. The Legislature needs to focus on retaining and hiring quality teachers, not scaring them away.
We told voters on their doorsteps that though the City Council doesn’t do much to influence our schools, we would use our voices to fight for them. To have a strong city and a strong community, we need strong schools. We urge every Johnson County public official to join us in supporting our public schools.