“In the end, the Finance Council decided to allocate only about half of the $12.3 million it had available. Some members of the panel said they liked the new system because it gave them more flexibility to address unique needs in individual districts. Another way to look at it would be that the system gives a small group of state officials, who may or may not have any educational expertise, the authority to arbitrarily micromanage school funding based on few, if any, set criteria.

“Legislators said they didn’t like the state’s existing school funding formula, which was based on the number of students and their special needs, so they instituted the block grant system for two years while they work to create a new school finance system. The loose process followed to distribute money from the ‘extraordinary needs fund’ doesn’t inspire much confidence in the impact that new finance system will have on Kansas schools.”

Read more here: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2015/aug/28/editorial-funding-process/