Republicans WIN! - now what?

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

To answer the OP nothing will change.  It doesn't matter.  Nothing ever changes.  Nothing will ever change.  Let that sink in all you stupid idiots in this thread.

Well, we already know that a few things are going to change. The Senate Majority Leader is going to change and, with it, the rules by which the Senate operates. McConnell has already confirmed that the Senate will now return to a 40-hour work week (the Senate did not work on Fridays under Reid - hey what a cool boss!), and floor debate and the amendment process will be restored - things that Reid stifled in an effort to squelch dissent and protect the President and fellow Dems from making difficult votes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/us/politics/victory-assured-gop-to-act-fast-in-promoting-agenda-in-congress.html?_r=0

The GOP's agenda seems promising, except for one major shortfall. According to the NYT, it appears that they are going to take a wait and see approach to immigration, which I think is a serious mistake as explained above.

[MakeItRain]

JoCo taxpayers are essentially subsidizing schools in western Kanss that are completely inefficient and need to be consolidated.

Another rough ridin' lie

[michigancat]

there are shitloads of western kansas districts that should be consolidated but I don't think any republicans are proposing that, are they?

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

JoCo taxpayers are essentially subsidizing schools in western Kanss that are completely inefficient and need to be consolidated.

Another rough ridin' lie

MIR, you keep calling me a liar, and then when I explain that it is in fact you who are incorrect, you just run back into the shadows, waiting to toss another grenade. How 'bout you get back to me on that whole "lie" about how the polls in many races were skewed heavily Democrat this year?

[_33]

To answer the OP nothing will change.  It doesn't matter.  Nothing ever changes.  Nothing will ever change.  Let that sink in all you stupid idiots in this thread.

Well, we already know that a few things are going to change. The Senate Majority Leader is going to change and, with it, the rules by which the Senate operates. McConnell has already confirmed that the Senate will now return to a 40-hour work week (the Senate did not work on Fridays under Reid - hey what a cool boss!), and floor debate and the amendment process will be restored - things that Reid stifled in an effort to squelch dissent and protect the President and fellow Dems from making difficult votes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/us/politics/victory-assured-gop-to-act-fast-in-promoting-agenda-in-congress.html?_r=0

The GOP's agenda seems promising, except for one major shortfall. According to the NYT, it appears that they are going to take a wait and see approach to immigration, which I think is a serious mistake as explained above.

Why do you do this to yourself?

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

there are shitloads of western kansas districts that should be consolidated but I don't think any republicans are proposing that, are they?

First, MIR would call you "a rough ridin' liar" for saying that schools need to be consoldiated. But yes, I'm not aware of any Republican that dares to actually touch that third rail. In fact, Brownback accused Davis of supporting consolidation - which would be a good thing - but Davis denied it.

I wasn't arguing that JoCo voted for Brownback because he or other republicans were pushing for consolidation - I just think it's possible that the "he slashed eduction spending" bullshit may have pissed some JoCo'rs off who are tired of subsidizing schools in western Kansas.

[Rage Against the McKee]

there are shitloads of western kansas districts that should be consolidated but I don't think any republicans are proposing that, are they?

Can you name a few? I can think of Ingalls/Cimarron, but most of those small towns are far enough from each other that it is probably more efficient to just have separate schools. I'm not very familiar with most of western Kansas, though.

[CNS]

If the schools play anything less than 11man football, consolidate.

[Rage Against the McKee]

there are shitloads of western kansas districts that should be consolidated but I don't think any republicans are proposing that, are they?

First, MIR would call you "a rough ridin' liar" for saying that schools need to be consoldiated. But yes, I'm not aware of any Republican that dares to actually touch that third rail. In fact, Brownback accused Davis of supporting consolidation - which would be a good thing - but Davis denied it.

I wasn't arguing that JoCo voted for Brownback because he or other republicans were pushing for consolidation - I just think it's possible that the "he slashed eduction spending" bullshit may have pissed some JoCo'rs off who are tired of subsidizing schools in western Kansas.

Do you have any numbers to back up this talk about Johnson County subsidizing western Kansas schools? I would assume that state dollars are distributed on a per pupil basis, which would make you completely full of crap, but you have me curious as to whether that assumption is wrong now.

[ChiComCat]

The republicans goal should be to be productive.  If they do that, they will be in good shape.  They won the election by going to the center on social issues but staying fiscally conservative.  I think they can win most elections, including the presidency, if they stay that way.  The problem will be keeping the religious right from pushing their social issues too far right in the presidential primary.

[Benja]

Who cares about who wins a rough ridin' election? Policy/structure needs to change drastically before anyone should care.

[MakeItRain]

there are shitloads of western kansas districts that should be consolidated but I don't think any republicans are proposing that, are they?

First, MIR would call you "a rough ridin' liar" for saying that schools need to be consoldiated.

That isn't what the lie was but I'm sure you know that.

[MakeItRain]

there are shitloads of western kansas districts that should be consolidated but I don't think any republicans are proposing that, are they?

First, MIR would call you "a rough ridin' liar" for saying that schools need to be consoldiated. But yes, I'm not aware of any Republican that dares to actually touch that third rail. In fact, Brownback accused Davis of supporting consolidation - which would be a good thing - but Davis denied it.

I wasn't arguing that JoCo voted for Brownback because he or other republicans were pushing for consolidation - I just think it's possible that the "he slashed eduction spending" bullshit may have pissed some JoCo'rs off who are tired of subsidizing schools in western Kansas.

Do you have any numbers to back up this talk about Johnson County subsidizing western Kansas schools? I would assume that state dollars are distributed on a per pupil basis, which would make you completely full of crap, but you have me curious as to whether that assumption is wrong now.

He knows this, he isn't full of crap, he lies because he thinks we are all morons.

[Benja]

Go 'pubs! Go 'libs! It's like you're rooting for the jayhawks or the wild wildcats. Go team!

[MakeItRain]

Go 'pubs! Go 'libs! It's like you're rooting for the jayhawks or the wild wildcats. Go team!

It is the absolute worst things about politics, idiots cheer for this stuff like they are sports.

[michigancat]

there are shitloads of western kansas districts that should be consolidated but I don't think any republicans are proposing that, are they?

Can you name a few? I can think of Ingalls/Cimarron, but most of those small towns are far enough from each other that it is probably more efficient to just have separate schools. I'm not very familiar with most of western Kansas, though.

Within less than 50 miles from where I grew up, I'd say Caldwell/South Haven, Conway Springs/Argonia, Attica/Chaparral, Pratt/Pratt Skyline, and Cunningham/Kingman. All involve 1A schools less than 20 miles from another high school the same size or larger, and I'm sure you'll find similar situations all over the state.

[CNS]

Go 'pubs! Go 'libs! It's like you're rooting for the jayhawks or the wild wildcats. Go team!

Yep.  Exactly what is ruining everything. 

[Benja]

Go 'pubs! Go 'libs! It's like you're rooting for the jayhawks or the wild wildcats. Go team!

It is the absolute worst things about politics, idiots cheer for this stuff like they are sports.

It's like a defense mechanism so their simpleton brain doesn't have to wrap itself around any ambiguity.

[MakeItRain]

there are shitloads of western kansas districts that should be consolidated but I don't think any republicans are proposing that, are they?

Can you name a few? I can think of Ingalls/Cimarron, but most of those small towns are far enough from each other that it is probably more efficient to just have separate schools. I'm not very familiar with most of western Kansas, though.

Within less than 50 miles from where I grew up, I'd say Caldwell/South Haven, Conway Springs/Argonia, Attica/Chaparral, Pratt/Pratt Skyline, and Cunningham/Kingman. All involve 1A schools less than 20 miles from another high school the same size or larger, and I'm sure you'll find similar situations all over the state.

I think you are conflating small schools with schools that need consolidation. If schools are independently doing well they should be left alone. IMO the only two of those parings that are legit candidates for consolidation are  Caldwell/South Haven and potentially Pratt and Skyline but I'm not intimately familiar with the performance and economics of those districts to be sure.

Garden City swallowed up some schools to the west many years ago, I have friends that had a 30+ minute rural commute to school, that should be avoided.

[slucat]

there are shitloads of western kansas districts that should be consolidated but I don't think any republicans are proposing that, are they?

Can you name a few? I can think of Ingalls/Cimarron, but most of those small towns are far enough from each other that it is probably more efficient to just have separate schools. I'm not very familiar with most of western Kansas, though.

Within less than 50 miles from where I grew up, I'd say Caldwell/South Haven, Conway Springs/Argonia, Attica/Chaparral, Pratt/Pratt Skyline, and Cunningham/Kingman. All involve 1A schools less than 20 miles from another high school the same size or larger, and I'm sure you'll find similar situations all over the state.

While I fully agree that schools should consolidate; small towns would shrivel up even more.  My high school in NYS is facing consolidation, it is problematic across the country.  There are things that could probably be done to consolidate that would not involve closing schools though.  Allow some distance learning for Sr/AP level courses so rural students aren't so limited in their choices.  This would allow for less staff for some schools (ex. students from western KS distance learn from Dodge or Garden schools).  Consolidate management and district officials.  Consolidate sports teams, more kids = (typically) more competitive teams. -Less overall overhead and probably more options. Yes, some towns would lose their Friday night lights, but k-6 kids wouldn't be on buses for 2+ hours/day.

This is pretty common in NYS- kids from my school could play hockey at a school 30 or so minutes away, kids from a school 15 minutes away could swim on our swim team or play on our football team.

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

there are shitloads of western kansas districts that should be consolidated but I don't think any republicans are proposing that, are they?

First, MIR would call you "a rough ridin' liar" for saying that schools need to be consoldiated. But yes, I'm not aware of any Republican that dares to actually touch that third rail. In fact, Brownback accused Davis of supporting consolidation - which would be a good thing - but Davis denied it.

I wasn't arguing that JoCo voted for Brownback because he or other republicans were pushing for consolidation - I just think it's possible that the "he slashed eduction spending" bullshit may have pissed some JoCo'rs off who are tired of subsidizing schools in western Kansas.

Do you have any numbers to back up this talk about Johnson County subsidizing western Kansas schools? I would assume that state dollars are distributed on a per pupil basis, which would make you completely full of crap, but you have me curious as to whether that assumption is wrong now.

No, you are thinking of just the "state base aid per pupil" - but that is only part of the overall school funding formula. Western Kansas schools end up receiving more money per pupil because they are smaller, less efficient, and therefore pay more money for facilities, administration, and other bloat per pupil than bigger schools.

This brief explanation of the recent Gannon ruling on equitable funding provides a simplified explanation...

The equity part references the ability for every public school district in Kansas to receive the median level of funding for capital outlay and local option budget, basically buildings, maintenance, and staff. Each District is allowed to raise money locally (through property taxes) to fund these areas, but the school finance formula acknowledges that some Districts have wealthier populations than others, and some districts cannot cover certain costs. One example cited is the greater transportation requirements of Districts in Western Kansas. The State covered the difference between "rich" Districts and "poor" Districts, until 2010, when they stopped paying.
 
The Court's decision requires the State to cover the equalization, and to restart payments. They have given the State until July 1, 2014 to comply, or the Court will take other measures to see the matter settled.

As you can imagine, some Districts will receive a lot of money from this settling of debts, while others will receive little.  One estimated breakdown for Johnson County suggested that the wealthiest Districts, Shawnee Mission and Blue Valley, would get almost no money ($64,000 in supplemental aid for BV, $0 for SM), while the most in need, KCK and Olathe, could get $8-10 million each.

http://www.mainstreamcoalition.org/gannon_explained

[michigancat]

there are shitloads of western kansas districts that should be consolidated but I don't think any republicans are proposing that, are they?

Can you name a few? I can think of Ingalls/Cimarron, but most of those small towns are far enough from each other that it is probably more efficient to just have separate schools. I'm not very familiar with most of western Kansas, though.

Within less than 50 miles from where I grew up, I'd say Caldwell/South Haven, Conway Springs/Argonia, Attica/Chaparral, Pratt/Pratt Skyline, and Cunningham/Kingman. All involve 1A schools less than 20 miles from another high school the same size or larger, and I'm sure you'll find similar situations all over the state.

I think you are conflating small schools with schools that need consolidation. If schools are independently doing well they should be left alone. IMO the only two of those parings that are legit candidates for consolidation are  Caldwell/South Haven and potentially Pratt and Skyline but I'm not intimately familiar with the performance and economics of those districts to be sure.

Garden City swallowed up some schools to the west many years ago, I have friends that had a 30+ minute rural commute to school, that should be avoided.

Kids in the Kingman, Chaparral, and Pratt districts already have 30 minute commutes to school.

That said, all those towns I mentioned have their own DISTRICTS. Even if you don't consolidate the actual high schools, it is absolutely absurd for places like Attica and Argonia to have their own administration all the way up to superintendent when it could be run much more efficently under one umbrella.

there are shitloads of western kansas districts that should be consolidated but I don't think any republicans are proposing that, are they?

Can you name a few? I can think of Ingalls/Cimarron, but most of those small towns are far enough from each other that it is probably more efficient to just have separate schools. I'm not very familiar with most of western Kansas, though.

Within less than 50 miles from where I grew up, I'd say Caldwell/South Haven, Conway Springs/Argonia, Attica/Chaparral, Pratt/Pratt Skyline, and Cunningham/Kingman. All involve 1A schools less than 20 miles from another high school the same size or larger, and I'm sure you'll find similar situations all over the state.

While I fully agree that schools should consolidate; small towns would shrivel up even more.  My high school in NYS is facing consolidation, it is problematic across the country.  There are things that could probably be done to consolidate that would not involve closing schools though.  Allow some distance learning for Sr/AP level courses so rural students aren't so limited in their choices.  This would allow for less staff for some schools (ex. students from western KS distance learn from Dodge or Garden schools).  Consolidate management and district officials.  Consolidate sports teams, more kids = (typically) more competitive teams. -Less overall overhead and probably more options. Yes, some towns would lose their Friday night lights, but k-6 kids wouldn't be on buses for 2+ hours/day.

This is pretty common in NYS- kids from my school could play hockey at a school 30 or so minutes away, kids from a school 15 minutes away could swim on our swim team or play on our football team.

If the only thing keeping a shitty small town from shriveling is a high school it should probably go ahead and shrivel up (as long as the education of the kids improves.)

[_33]

Troy Kansas' town motto is "one school, one town" because they don't want to consolidate and they are racist.

[MakeItRain]

there are shitloads of western kansas districts that should be consolidated but I don't think any republicans are proposing that, are they?

First, MIR would call you "a rough ridin' liar" for saying that schools need to be consoldiated. But yes, I'm not aware of any Republican that dares to actually touch that third rail. In fact, Brownback accused Davis of supporting consolidation - which would be a good thing - but Davis denied it.

I wasn't arguing that JoCo voted for Brownback because he or other republicans were pushing for consolidation - I just think it's possible that the "he slashed eduction spending" bullshit may have pissed some JoCo'rs off who are tired of subsidizing schools in western Kansas.

Do you have any numbers to back up this talk about Johnson County subsidizing western Kansas schools? I would assume that state dollars are distributed on a per pupil basis, which would make you completely full of crap, but you have me curious as to whether that assumption is wrong now.

No, you are thinking of just the "state base aid per pupil" - but that is only part of the overall school funding formula. Western Kansas schools end up receiving more money per pupil because they are smaller, less efficient, and therefore pay more money for facilities, administration, and other bloat per pupil than bigger schools.

This brief explanation of the recent Gannon ruling on equitable funding provides a simplified explanation...

The equity part references the ability for every public school district in Kansas to receive the median level of funding for capital outlay and local option budget, basically buildings, maintenance, and staff. Each District is allowed to raise money locally (through property taxes) to fund these areas, but the school finance formula acknowledges that some Districts have wealthier populations than others, and some districts cannot cover certain costs. One example cited is the greater transportation requirements of Districts in Western Kansas. The State covered the difference between "rich" Districts and "poor" Districts, until 2010, when they stopped paying.
 
The Court's decision requires the State to cover the equalization, and to restart payments. They have given the State until July 1, 2014 to comply, or the Court will take other measures to see the matter settled.

As you can imagine, some Districts will receive a lot of money from this settling of debts, while others will receive little.  One estimated breakdown for Johnson County suggested that the wealthiest Districts, Shawnee Mission and Blue Valley, would get almost no money ($64,000 in supplemental aid for BV, $0 for SM), while the most in need, KCK and Olathe, could get $8-10 million each.

http://www.mainstreamcoalition.org/gannon_explained

Maybe you aren't lying in this case and is just dumb. This isn't an issue of JOCO communities funding Western Kansas schools. It's an issue of bigger Kansas communities not getting the funding they think they deserve because the money is going to smaller schools all over the state including NE KS. I'm pretty sure, could be wrong though, that the first lawsuit involving cities suing the state about this were the communities of Garden City, Dodge City, Hutchinson, and Derby suing the state about this very issue. I know the Garden City and Wichita districts have sued the state several times. This isn't a JOCO versus all of Western Kansas issue.

[Rage Against the McKee]

The equity part references the ability for every public school district in Kansas to receive the median level of funding for capital outlay and local option budget, basically buildings, maintenance, and staff. Each District is allowed to raise money locally (through property taxes) to fund these areas, but the school finance formula acknowledges that some Districts have wealthier populations than others, and some districts cannot cover certain costs. One example cited is the greater transportation requirements of Districts in Western Kansas. The State covered the difference between "rich" Districts and "poor" Districts, until 2010, when they stopped paying.
 
The Court's decision requires the State to cover the equalization, and to restart payments. They have given the State until July 1, 2014 to comply, or the Court will take other measures to see the matter settled.

As you can imagine, some Districts will receive a lot of money from this settling of debts, while others will receive little.  One estimated breakdown for Johnson County suggested that the wealthiest Districts, Shawnee Mission and Blue Valley, would get almost no money ($64,000 in supplemental aid for BV, $0 for SM), while the most in need, KCK and Olathe, could get $8-10 million each.

http://www.mainstreamcoalition.org/gannon_explained

See, the problem is that you need a map. KCK and Olathe are in northeast Kansas, not very far from Johnson County.