On August 24th, the State Finance Council didn’t give any district all of the funding they requested. Instead they assigned discount percentages to the requests, including only giving funding for population growths over 2% based on Sen. Susan Wagle’s recommendation.

“’You look at most businesses in Kansas,’ Wagle said, ‘whether they’re technology, whether its recreation, hotel, restaurant. Doesn’t really matter what type of business it is. They are used to accommodating with specific personnel a fluctuation in their clientele.’

“’Two percent above last year’s enrollment can easily be accommodated in the classroom I would think,’ Wagle said, ‘and with current personnel.’” http://cjonline.com/news/2015-08-24/state-leaders-slash-emergency-aid-requests-school-districts

We disagree with Sen. Wagle’s assessment. Schools’ “clientele” are children moving through their academic years, who are in a their schools for 8 hours a day from August through May. That’s an essentially different type of interaction than most “clientele” has with a particular business. Schools also can’t raise their prices or do many other things that a typical business can do. Wagle’s comments also ignore the fact that for at least some of the districts, many of the new students are high needs students who need extra services to meet the academic expectations we have for our children.

We also thinks this highlights a problem with the block grants and the extraordinary need fund. Plain old ordinary unmet needs are just to be dealt with, and the state is only prepared to dole out the additional funding (raised by taking .4% of allocated state funding for each district) to needs that rise to an “extraordinary” level.