It’s time to stop robbing our kids.
- Stand Up Blue Valley
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
It’s Graduation Week in the Blue Valley School District. But did you know that the Blue Valley Schools’ Class of 2026 has NEVER received a fully-funded education during the past 13 years of schooling, K -12? Not ONE year.
The Kansas Legislature is to blame for this, including some BV-area legislators, both past and present. Incredibly, even some legislators who have students IN BV Schools vote AGAINST our district. This dates back to the Brownback years, but continues as a significant problem today.
For over 15 YEARS, even though the law stipulates that they must, KsLeg has refused to fully fund excess Special Education costs - to the tune of millions of dollars every year. That’s 20k+ BV students who’ve been robbed of the educational experience to which they were LEGALLY entitled.
“Kansas law requires the state to fund 92% of excess special education costs — but it has consistently fallen short. In 2024-25, Blue Valley spent $72.4 million on special education. The state and federal government covered $35.1 million — leaving the district to cover $37.4 million, or 52%, from its own general fund.
If the state met its 92% legal obligation, Blue Valley would receive an additional $16.9 million per year.
This school year, Blue Valley had to transfer $18 million from its general fund to cover the gap left by the state’s failure to meet its legally required special education funding obligation.” (from KCTV5; link in comments.)
As SUBV reported in January, the state budget had already allocated the money needed to fully fund Special Education. NO tax increase required. NO taking funds from other public services. The money IS AVAILABLE NOW. But the anti-public education supermajority in the KsLeg refused to fund our kids’ schools. (link in comments.)
Now - again - BV Schools is being forced to move funds from General Education services to Special Education services as the only way to close the SPED gap. BV Schools explained these consequences to legislators and - along with other Johnson County and statewide school districts - literally begged KsLeg to fund public schools. (link in comments.) Upcoming cuts to BV administration, staff, and student services are still being determined, but recent School Board meetings indicate that kids will be directly impacted.
Frustrated BV voters have emailed and talked to their legislators (we know because they’ve told us). Several current BV-area legislators DO support public education, but not all of them. This is the root cause of the cuts being made in Blue Valley.
The BV-area legislators who consistently refuse to vote for necessary funding vote to divert tax money to private schools in the so-called “tax credit scholarship” scheme they call “School Choice.” (It’s the private schools making the choice here - they can choose which students to admit or reject. And it turns out the tax giveaways benefit wealthy families who already send their kids to private school - mostly religious schools.) The “tax credit” voucher-type scheme has NO transparency, NO guarantees that funding is even going directly to educate kids, and ZERO student-outcomes reporting! It’s a money-laundering scam.
So what can we do? The 2026 legislative session is over. The damage is done. And (because reserve funds have been depleted) the latest round of projected cuts in Blue Valley will be especially painful.
There’s only one thing we CAN do at this point. BV voters can re-elect pro-public education legislators, and REMOVE the ones from office who vote against the future of our kids, their schools, and our community. (Not all of these legislators are up for election, but KS House of Representative members are.) Voters can also elect a governor with the best positions on funding public education.
Stay tuned for our candidate endorsements in the coming weeks. And please - if you can get involved during this year’s election cycle - make time for that. There will be numerous ways, both large and small, that you can help.
Together, let’s work to deliver a fully-funded education to future graduating classes in Blue Valley. It’s time to stop robbing our kids.
Links:
KCTV5 article
Money was already there:
BV asked KsLeg for needed funding:
The Tax Credit Scholarship scam:
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