TOPEKA- House Speaker Pro Tem Arlen Siegfreid (R-Olathe) today responded to assertions by Kansas Democrats that his school funding proposal was unveiled with coordination from Senator Sam Brownback’s campaign for Governor.
“It’s insulting to me as well as the educators and researchers that worked for months on this plan,” Rep. Siegfreid said. “I started work in February to draft a bill I hoped would open collective dialogue. To see Democrats ignore the issue and reduce it to campaign fodder is disappointing. It does nothing for the process.”
Rep. Siegfreid proposed the plan, which would focus on localizing and simplifying the current funding formula to the Special Committee on Education Tuesday afternoon.
“My intention throughout this has always been to provide input and ownership from as many groups as we can, because it’s not a simple solution,” Rep. Siegfreid said. “Rather than addressing me directly to join in that process, my colleagues ran to the press to stump for Sen. Holland’s campaign.”
Siegfried said regardless of the reaction to the bill, he plans to continue work on a plan that he believes will be sustainable, and affordable.
“Until we give local citizens a chance to understand how this system works and demand accountability with local spending, we’ll continue to face the same problems we have now. We can bury our heads in the sand, or we can admit there’s a problem and begin to craft a better way.”
Rep. Siegfreid represents the 15th District which includes parts of the city of Olathe and Olathe Township in Johnson County. He serves the Tax and Education Budget committees.
