Davis vows to restore school funding, but won’t say how

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis criticized Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's record on education funding and vowed that if he is elected governor in November, he will restore cuts that have been made to education funding.

? Democrat Paul Davis vowed Tuesday to make restoring funding for public schools his top priority if he is elected governor, but he declined to say specifically how he intends to do that.

“As governor, I will put our kids and our schools first,” Davis said at a news conference at a central Topeka elementary school. “I will make our schools a priority again and restore funding to our classrooms.”

Davis challenged claims by Republican Gov. Sam Browback, who has said total education spending has increased under his administration.

“In 2011, I opposed Sam Brownback’s proposal that made the largest single cut to school funding in state history,” Davis said. “It cut $232 per student. And in 2012 … I proposed a plan to begin restoring the cuts that had been made to our schools and provide much-needed property tax relief.

Davis was referring to Brownback’s first year in office, when the base state aid per pupil formula was reduced from $4,012 to $3,780. Those cuts actually occurred over the course of two fiscal years, and Brownback has said much of it was the result of Congress phasing out federal stimulus aid, which helped states shore up their budgets during the Great Recession.

But as the economy improved and revenues flowing to the state began to recover, instead of restoring cuts to education, Brownback pushed for a series of historic tax cuts that Davis said now threaten to create a large budget shortfall within the next five years.

“Gov. Brownback did not make schools a priority in 2012 when he signed a tax experiment that would set our state on a path to bankruptcy and threaten our ability to invest in our future,” Davis said.

Brownback’s campaign rejected that criticism.

“Paul Davis is once again tripped up by the facts,” Brownback’s campaign spokesman John Milburn said. “Today he slammed the budgets he voted for in 2009 and 2010 that had dire consequences for Kansas public schools, while criticizing those who have been cleaning up the mess.”

While Davis criticized Brownback for refusing to even acknowledge that projected shortfall, Davis himself offered no specific plan for solving it.

“What we’ve got to do is stop the experiment here, and that’s what we’ve proposed” Davis said.

Earlier in the campaign, Davis proposed freezing income tax rates when he would take office in January 2015, putting a halt to additional tax cuts that are currently scheduled to take effect. But it is unclear whether that would prevent, or simply delay, the onset of a large budget shortfall.

Brownback has defended the tax cuts, saying they will stimulate economic growth. And during a news conference in August, he said economic growth will prevent that budget shortfall from occurring.

Davis said Tuesday that he also believes economic growth can solve the budget shortfall. But again, he declined to offer a specific economic plan.

“My plan is to use proven ways to grow the economy and have the state be a much better partner with communities across the state,” Davis said. “Because folks in Hutchinson and Garden City know a lot more about how to grow their economy than the folks in Topeka know.”