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Derek Schmidt “Won’t Say What He’d Cut,” But Has Long Record of Defending Brownback’s Cuts to Public Schools

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New reporting from the Topeka Capital-Journal holds Derek Schmidt accountable for making election-year promises to overhaul Kansas’ budget without specifying how he would pay for his plans or what he would cut.

In last Wednesday’s debate, ​​Schmidt “said the budget would be his top priority — but did not directly answer the part of the moderator’s question asking how he would accomplish his priority.”

But looking at Schmidt’s record of siding with former GOP Gov. Sam Brownback, it’s clear public school funding would be on the chopping block.

As Brownback’s loyal sidekick, Schmidt spent over $1 million defending deep education cuts that resulted in four-day school weeks — and which the Kansas Supreme Court repeatedly found violated the state constitution — in courts and even argued the state didn’t need to balance the budget. Earlier, as the State’s Senate Majority Leader, Schmidt also consistently passed budgets underfunding schools.

DGA Deputy Communications Director Sam Newton said: “Every day that Derek Schmidt refuses to offer specifics about his election year promises, Kansans don’t need to look any further than Schmidt’s record of defending Sam Brownback as he dismantled public schools to guess what he’d cut from the state budget.”

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