Governor to reveal school funding plan tonight

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Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ proposal for public schools — the biggest part of the state budget — will remain secret until this evening as the 2004 legislative session starts.

In a budget briefing with journalists, officials with the Sebelius administration refused to disclose her plans for school funding.

Traditionally on the first day of the session, governors go over their budget plans with reporters with the agreement that reporters will not print or broadcast details of the budget until after the governor starts the State of the State speech.

Nicole Corcoran, a spokeswoman for Sebelius, said Sebelius didn’t want the media to know about the education proposal beforehand because she wanted to be the first one to talk about it. Corcoran had said she heard an unnamed reporter planned to break the embargo on information.

Corcoran said Sebelius would outline her proposal during the State of the State speech, which starts at 7 p.m. Her office would then provide a detail of the plan after the speech. Corcoran said Sebelius would be available to respond to reporters’ questions for a short period after the speech.