Our Kids Deserve Better: We Must Fully Fund Kansas Schools
This week, backpacks are getting packed, first-day outfits are being picked out, and teachers are preparing their classrooms to welcome our kids back to school.
Before I say anything else, I want to thank every teacher, paraprofessional, bus driver, custodian, cafeteria worker, counselor, and school nurse in District 86 and across this state: thank you. You all do so much with limited resources, and Kansas is lucky to have you.
I believe expressions of gratitude are meaningless without follow-through, so I want to speak with you about something that weighs heavily on me. As a member of the House Education Committee, I've spent this year watching the clock tick down on a decision that will define what "thank you" actually means for our schools and educators going forward.
The clock is running out on how we fund our schools
As you may know, the funding formula that determines how much money flows into our public schools, the Kansas School Equity and Enhancement Act, expires on July 1, 2027. A task force has been meeting to design what comes next, but as of this spring, that group still hadn't landed on formal recommendations. That means the 2027 legislative session will determine how Kansas funds every classroom in the state for years to come.
We cannot return to the failed Brownback experiment. If we get this wrong, then we're right back where we’ve been before—in court, with the Kansas Supreme Court telling the state (again) that shortchanging our kids violates our own Constitution. Get it right, and we finally give our schools the stability they need to actually plan, hire, and teach the next generation.
Special education funding has to be part of that conversation from day one. Right now, state law requires at least $601 million a year for special education, but Kansas has spent well over a decade underfunding what state law itself says our kids with disabilities are owed.
Every dollar we shortchange in special education gets quietly pulled from other classrooms to cover the gap—money that should be going to smaller class sizes, updated textbooks, and mental health support ends up patching a hole special ed funding should have already filled. That's not fair to any student, disabled or not, and it's not fair to the teachers stretched thin trying to make it work anyway.
Why the November election matters so much for this fight
Kansas Republicans currently hold a veto-proof supermajority in both the House and Senate. That means when Governor Kelly (and hopefully Gov. Holscher after her) vetoes a harmful bill, the supermajority can simply overrule her, no matter what parents, teachers, or the Governor have to say about it.
If we go into next year’s discussions on school funding with the same supermajority we have now, we go in with almost no leverage to demand a formula that's fully funded, that treats special education like the legal obligation it is, and that doesn't shortchange kids again.
This November, every Kansas House seat is on the ballot, and it will take just a handful of flipped seats to break that veto-proof majority. That is the difference between a school funding formula written behind closed doors by a supermajority, and one that has to be negotiated in the open, with real input from the people who actually show up in classrooms every day.
What I'm asking of you
Back-to-school is a reminder of what's actually at stake in these budget debates—not line items, but the kids climbing onto those buses this week. As we cheer them all on, let's also commit to the work ahead:
Make a gift today, if you are able, to send me back to the Kansas House next year where I can keep fighting for Kansas schools, educators, and kids.
Pay attention to the Education Funding Task Force's recommendations as they come out ahead of the 2027 session—and ask all your elected officials what they're going to do to ensure all students get a fair shot in Kansas schools.
Show up. We need you to vote on or before November 3rd, of course—but we also need your help taking our message to the doors everyday between now and then. Learn more about ways to get involved here.
Our teachers are doing their part this week, opening their doors to every kid who walks in. The least we can do is fight for a legislature willing to fully fund the classrooms they're standing in.
Let's get to work.
In solidarity,
Abi
