The cuts are huge, just huge! They're ginormous I tell you!!

"The cuts are huge, just huge, and beyond the ability of schools to absorb," he said. "And the legislature knows it's violating Montoy."

That's the assessment of Alan Rupe who lead the charge to sue the state of Kansas for more education funding. If you've even wanted to know how divorced from reality the educrats are, give today's Dodge Globe article a read.

Rupe went running to the press today because he knows that some kind of education cut is coming. The cuts proposed by the House and Senate are much, much less than any other agency has been asked to absorb. Of course, that means nothing to Rupe.

"The court didn't rule that the constitutionally-mandated right to an education changes with the size of the state budget," said Rupe, a partner in the Wichita law firm of Kutak Rock, LTD. "It ruled that the state was in violation of that mandate, and must provide an adequate education to every Kansas child, period. Since the court never actually approved the legislature's actions, and since it's clear the legislature is willfully violating its constitutionally-mandated obligations, the court has an obligation to take back jurisdiction."

In other words, it doesn't matter than K-12 spending makes up more than half the budget. And it doesn't matter that the state is going broke because its citizens are going broke, not making as much income as they did before and not buying as many things as they did before. All that matters is his twisted view of the Kansas Constitution.

I was at a loss for words at his complete break from reality.

The cuts are NOT too much for schools to absorb. And with new evidence that schools are sitting on $1.36 BILLION, how can someone actually say that schools need MORE money when everyone else is going broke? If schools can't deliver a quality education in Kansas after a less than 5% cut, then our education system has many more problems to solve than just money.

Further, it looks to me that Rupe just flat lied to the Dodge Globe.

"They (the Legislature) seem to have just eliminated their ability to raise taxes," he said. “Meanwhile, the cuts to the schools are huge, and, in fact, return the education funding to pre-Montoy levels."

I'm going to ignore that first part for now. Anyone who believes that even a 5% cut to education would return school spending to pre-Montoy levels is a liar. Since 2003, education spending has increased 53%. In total, the Montoy case increased education spending by more than $1 billion. The $100 million or so that is being looked at pales in comparison to the hikes in spending of the past four to five years. Mr. Rupe, you are a liar.

Now, back to that first part, where he says the legislature can't raise taxes. Is that why your running to the court, so you can mandate a tax increase on your own? Is that that kind of state we live in now? Have we regressed back to taxation with representation? If the court reopens the case and orders additional increases in education spending, that's exactly where we'll be.