To the editor:

Sure, no one likes their taxes to go up, but our school board is caught between a rock and hard place with this April 1 special election. Not only did the Kansas Legislature raise the cap on the local option budget to 31 percent and require school boards to hold an election to access it, state law also forces school boards to levy the maximum 31 percent in order to receive all of the state aid for which they are eligible.

Our schools will receive more than

$3 million in additional state aid for “new facilities” thanks to this community’s support of construction of a new South Junior High and additions to the other secondary school buildings. Had our school board not levied the then-maximum LOB, our schools, by law, would not have received these “new facility” dollars.

As a result of a lawsuit that centered on the issue of equity, the Legislature changed its school finance formula in 1992. Since that time, the statewide mill levy for schools declined from 32 to 20 mills, but the local option budget maximum climbed to 31 percent. The tax burden clearly has shifted from the state level to our local communities; that’s hardly an equitable system for educating Kansas children. It will likely take another lawsuit to bring about change in Kansas school finance; in the meantime, our school board must work within the current system. Our first-class school system needs us, and we need it to maintain our outstanding community.

Joan Golden,

Lawrence