During the K-12 Student Success meeting yesterday, Rep. Lunn cited the KPI-pushed statistic that Kansas is around 4th in the country in its school funding from the state general fund. What he failed to recognize was that in the early 90s, Kansas made a conscious decision to make school funding less reliant on local property taxes and more on state level funding, and that now the 20 mills raised locally (that accounting change comes in at $586.5 million) is counted as state funding. He also looked at statewide test scores without acknowledging increases in Kanas ELL students and students on free and reduced lunch.

“Scott Frank, the state’s legislative post auditor, outlined a 2006 audit about spending and student outcomes. The audit found a strong association, nearly one to one, between increased spending per student and improved student performance.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article48861170.html