Now teachers are trolls?  Let the governor know that this kind of bullying is unacceptable.

But even more important than contacting the governor's office:  Talk to your friends and relatives about this issue and about public education funding!  If all they know about the situation is what they hear in Brownback's ads, then they know nothing, because those ads are so full of lies and misinformation.

Here are some facts:

1) Statewide, the number of K-12 teachers has gone down by 265 since 2010.

2) In the schools of USD 453, the number of teachers has decreased by more than 5% since 2012-13.

3) In his first budget, Brownback made the largest ever one-time cuts to public education in the state's history ($232 per pupil over 2 years) and declared them to be "a victory for Kansas."

4) The only reason the Kansas legislature addressed the issue of schools that are underfunded in the last legislative cycle is that the State Supreme Court ordered them to do so.  They addressed only the issue of schools that are underfunded because their local property taxes can't make up the difference, and they did so by cutting weighted funding for at-risk children.

5) Our Kansas public schools are now being funded at lower-than-recession-era levels! According to one study, when inflation is taken into account, Kansas appropriated $950 less per pupil in 2013 than in 2008.  

Please start a conversation to counteract the misinformation people are seeing on television!

More information and links to newspaper articles about the misleading information can be found at Fact Check.

P.S. While some ads, like Leadership, Not Experiments, Republicans Endorse Davis for Governor and Brownback's Failed Experiment, are airing in Wichita and Topeka markets, we're not seeing them here, which is another reason to use word of mouth!  Talk it up!

Refuting Brownback's claims about education

What do you do when you are the Kansas Governor and:

• You make the largest cut to schools in state history?
• Your “experiment” leaves the Kansas economy lagging the nation?
• You blow a billion dollar hole in the state budget?
• Your political advisers are under investigation by the FBI?
• More than 100 members of your party endorsed your opponent?
• You lose nearly 40% of your primary vote?
• A new poll shows you losing 51% - 41%?

You release a new ad distorting your record, of course.


Click here for the response from the Paul Davis campaign:  The truth about the claims Sam Brownback is making in his new ad, "Record."

... Davis says the number one issue with Kansans has been education

“I’m hearing a great deal of concern about the future of public education. People realize we have traditionally had good schools in Kansas which is a big factor contributing to our quality of life,” Davis says. “People are concerned about cuts to education funding that are happening at the state level.”

This is an excerpt from an editorial in the Scott County Register. The entire article can be found at http://www.scottcountyrecord.com/news/davis-rides-discontent-with-fiscal-experiment.  Scroll over to the right to access the scroll bar for the article.

We'd like to remind those of you who are Kansas citizens that the deadline to register to vote is October 14. For details about the documents needed and where to submit them, see https://www.kdor.org/voterregistration/.

Why Due Process Rights Matter to Students and Teachers, and Primary News

Sometimes it's difficult to explain to people in other professions why we were so disturbed by the Kansas legislature's decision to stop granting due process rights to K-12 teachers. This article hits the nail on the head!   It's Not the Firing; It's the Threatening

The primary is over!  Ruth Striggow mentioned the KNEA legislative bulletin Under the Dome in her convocation speech today. It comes every day or two while the legislature is in session but infrequently for most of the year. Here's a link to today's encouraging message about the primary: Under the Dome.  To subscribe to the newsletter, click here and scroll right.