"With the anti-tax sentiment of the tea party and the Republican sweep Tuesday, a tax increase for education does not seem likely," The Oklahoman's Megan Rolland reports ('Oklahoma officials look for education funding options after SQ 744's defeat').

Rolland notes that "Kansas' GOP-led Legislature passed a temporary one-cent sales tax in July to raise roughly $300 million in revenue. It was promoted primarily on the message of funding education. 'We were at a stage when we passed that, that we knew if there wasn't more funding found for our schools, our state was going to suffer drastically,' said Karen Godfrey, vice-president of the Kansas National Education Association. 'It's a very small amount of money, and it was quite a battle. Some of our legislators who were up for re-election, lost, I'm afraid because of this.'"

Remind me to send flowers to one Karen Godfrey, vice president of the Kansas National Education Association, for that very helpful quote.

Indeed, my sources in Kansas tell me that in the primary election five tax-hiking Republicans were taken out by conservative, anti-tax Republicans. Then in the general election 16 Democrats went bye-bye and were replaced with anti-tax Republicans. And all that for a "temporary" and "small" tax hike!