Wichita School district faces a unique problem. Religious groups within the area have engaged in hopeful outreach in areas of Africa where war and famine touch the lives of every family in their hope of providing refugees a new lease on life.

http://www.kansas.com/...

The District had 132 refugees enrolled during last school year, and 95 percent did not speak English when they arrived. The district expects an additional 145 to 150 refugee students to enroll this year, it expects the total number of refugees to be about 220.

The concerns regarding refugees resulted in House Speaker Merrick asking why Wichita was receiving so many darn refugees. Sam Brownback took the puzzlement -- which I also took not as a racist moment but as just a matter of confusion; others have said he didn't say "darn" he said "um"/"urg", listening remote, I cannot be clear -- Brownback clarified by explaining the situation occurs as refugees were leaving war torn Africa and receiving help from religious groups in Wichita.

While some are aghast at the view of Sam Brownback's budget Director Sullivan in regards to the needs of the Wichita community, those who understand the conservative base could have guessed this would be a consideration of the state of Kansas.

Conservative Republican groups and commenters have referred to the Episcopal movement of taking in refugees as a "colonization attempt" and associate it with an endorsement of changing the makeup of the country.

Those same donors and backers of the conservative Kansas movement are simply convinced these children represent a plot to "change America", linking them with everything from being tested to make sure they are "socialist" voters to accusing them of having blanket HIV. Link here.

Apparently, being good Christians wasn't such a good thing for Wichita schools.

But Wichita School district wasn't the only one to receive simply gruel today.

Wagle sez schools ought to be able to absorb 2% enrollment growth w/o additional personnel. #ksleg — Peter Hancock (@LJWpqhancock) August 24, 2015

Senate President Susan Wagle advanced a 2% absorption rate with the expectations local budget reserves could be used to cover cost in the case a school overruns. As a result schools will immediately feel the impact.

Wagle motion setting threshold at 2 % enrollment increase passes easily. Only Dems vote against. #ksleg #ksed — Bryan Lowry (@BryanLowry3) August 24, 2015

Threshold for enrollment increase to be set at 2 percent. That means KCK district gets about $400,000 of its $2 million request. #ksleg — Ed Eveld (@EEveld) August 24, 2015

Conservatives are currently talking about ways to decrease inefficiencies within the schools, with many noting that the "economy of scale" means that more students shouldn't mean significantly more cost as the schools should be able to negotiate better rates or make better decisions.

Many school districts, who just watched hundreds of thousands of needed funds pulled away from their district now must contemplate what services and methods will be eliminated in order to live in the new reality.