Rep. Doug Patterson's Special Education - Survey Report
LEGISLATIVE UDATE
AGovernment’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it still moves, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” President Ronald Regan
Rep. Doug Patterson=s
ISSUES IN
A. EDUCATION: APROTECTING SCHOOL and FAMILY BUDGETS@
Goal: Adequately fund education pending a Supreme Court Case and complete re-write of the School Finance Formula
without raising taxes.
Result: Done! With the HOUSE REPUBLICAN EDUCATION PLAN.
Discussion: On
surveys to Leawood residents asking a variety of questions, including questions
concerning the Governors tax plan and education finance. For
these issues see: http://www.dougpatterson.org/newsletter/. Survey responses
have been pouring in and they lead to 2 conclusions:
1. We do not want need or want a state wide tax increase.
2. We do want local control over school finance.
Survey Question: Responsive to the acceptability of the Governor’s tax plan to fund schools statewide and which minimizes local taxes to fund local schools, the results were:
NO: 84%
YES: 13%
Other: 3% such as “No new taxes for anything”
Survey Question: Responsive to the acceptability of a tax increase even less than the Governors tax plan but which would not let us also raise local taxes to fund local schools, the results were:
NO: 86%
YES: 14%
I sent out these surveys because I had been appointed to a select House and Senate joint committee on school finance for 2004. There were 4 House members and 3 Senators on the committee. As a result of this committee’s work and with significant input from the House Leadership, on
http://www.kshousegop.org/school%20finance_files/frame.htm
This Plan could increase funding to
In a press release issued today, I announced “We need to commit ourselves to the betterment of our education system. This plan offers real dedication to the future of education and the future of
The Plan increases state funding for at-risk students by $25,407,000 (this what the Governor asked for), bilingual students by $2,147,000 (double what the Governor proposed) and it provides $1,000,000 to establish a teacher mentoring program for 1000 new teachers (as was in the Governor’s proposal). In addition to providing $28,544,000 in new state dollars, the House Republican Education Plan also gives schools local control to raise $62,600,000. Wealthier districts could raise $23,000,000 to pay teachers a costs of living increase, and all school districts could locally fund $39,600,000 for special education programs. This Plan actually earmarks money for teachers. The Augenblick and Meyers study suggested such a measure.
Under Governor Sebileus’ Education First Plan, state taxes would be increased by $462 million a year, and only one out of every five dollars raised in
Preliminary calculations reveal that the Plan could raise the following sums for our
Shawnee Mission, $6.9 million;
DeSoto, $1.1 million;
Spring Hill, $258,000;
Gardner-Edgerton-Antioch, $197,000;
Paola, $93,000.
We will have a tough fight to get this Plan passed over the objections of the Governor and the minority party, but there is enough money earmarked for at-risk and bilingual students that there is assistance for out-state districts. This will help out-state Legislators vote for the Plan. I only hope that Kansas Families United for Public Education (KFUPE), the Kansas Association of School Board (KASB) and the Kansas National Education Association – teachers union (KNEA) join with us in helping advance this Plan. As you have read in my earlier newsletters, these three organizations have been huge obstacles in helping us advance school finance initiatives in the past which preserve local initiatives and local control. More to come on this.
B. OTHER SURVEY RESULTS
In addition to the above questions on education the following issues were addressed with the following results:
Question: Would you support Kansas Casino gaming, especially with the in
YES: 70%
NO: 30%
Question: Would it be important to you that the Woodlands dog/horse track near the Kansas Speedway also got a casino?
YES: 77%
NO: 7%
Not Important: 16%
Question: Would you support granting local cities and counties having more say in raising local taxes, i.e., alcohol, sales, fuel, ect. taxes to be used locally and get away from sales and property taxes:
YES: 68%
NO: 26%
Other: 6%
Question: Should the death penalty be continued (That is an issue this year)
YES: 84%
NO: 16%
Reoccurring comments in the survey have been as follows:
“We should not be supporting illegal aliens”
“State government is not efficient”
“The efficiency and need for all our social programs should be reviewed”
“We must allow local school district to raise more money”
(That is what the HOUSE REPUBLICAN EDUCATION Plan for 2004 does)
“Why is so much time being wasted on gaming, just do it”
“School budgets are too top heavy on the administration side – pay teachers more – and
administrators less”
“Do not increase taxes any more”
“Cut spending across the board – and start with legislator’s salaries” (ouch!)
C. CONCLUSION
We are working on a transportation plan which continues the 1999 Comprehensive Transportation Plan through the scheduled term of 2009 plus adds a 2 year transition period (2009-2011) allowing us to readdress additional transportation need. The adoption of this plan, developed by the Republican Leadership of the House and Senate will assure that local projects, such as I-35/ 169 and
I will be sending you my regular newsletter on legislative matters, but I felt that this special report would be important, given the events of the day.
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As I have done in the past, I hope to get you a report on a regular basis. Please e-mail me (at Patter@ink.org) or call at 785-296-7604 if you have questions.
ALSO, if you have others who you believe would find these legislative reports of use, Please e-mail me their e-mail addresses and I will add them to my e-mail address book.
Respectfully,
Rep, Doug Patterson
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