“The next time Gov. Sam Brownback makes a claim about education spending, he needs to double or triple check to make sure his numbers are accurate. He and his staff have a bad habit of being wrong.
“The most recent mistake occurred during a news conference Friday. Brownback displayed a large chart claiming that the average teacher salary in Kansas was $7,060 more than the average salary in Missouri…The Kansas average included salary and benefits, and the Missouri total was salary only.
“At a news conference last month, Brownback infuriated the Garden City school district when he claimed that the district’s budget increased by 9 percent during the 2014-15 school year. He also noted that the district ‘doubled their normal increase in salary.’
“Superintendent Steve Karlin responded that actual spending increased less than 4 percent. And that doubling of raises? The district increased base teacher salaries by 0.62 percent in the 2013-14 school year and 1.28 percent in 2014-15 (when the rate of inflation for those years was 1.6 and 1.5 percent, respectively)…
“Brownback’s staff also has spun some numbers. Melika Willoughby, his deputy communications director, accused the Kansas City, Kan., school district of ‘misinformation and hyperbole’ in May when it reported that it was losing about $2 million in operating funding because of the switch to block-grant funding. She said that the district will be receiving $20.7 million in additional state funding during the life of the block-grant program.
“But $12.9 million of that total occurred last year, before the block-grant plan was approved this past session. It was ordered by the Kansas Supreme Court, which ruled that the state was not equitably funding public schools. However, most of that funding went to property tax relief, as required by state law, and didn’t increase the district’s operating budget. Other funding that Willoughby cited was future payments to the state’s pension plan – which also is money that won’t be available for the district to spend…
“Mistakes happen. And because of the complexity of education funding, it is possible to look at the same data from different perspectives. (Is base state aid or total spending more important? Should pension payments count as operating costs? Does a reduction in a promised funding increase count as a cut?)
“But Brownback lectured reporters during his press conference last week about the need for ‘more facts in the education debate.’ He should start by getting his own facts straight.”
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/opinion/editorials/article29208985.html