We’ve seen a lot of misinformation on the block grants and operational funding. Please read and re-read this post and then share it. “Over a 5-year period that’s an increase of $257 million, but what does that increase pay for? “The numbers from the Comparison Report show that aid went up in 4 categories, [KPERS, Local Option Budget Aid (which mainly lowered local property taxes and did not increase funding available to schools, Capital Improvement Aid, and Capital Outlay Aid (in response to the Supreme Court Gannon decision]… “State aid for classrooms has actually gone down in the...
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Generosity not so extraordinary
“However, the real joke is on public schools in the state. Whether they realized it not, each of them contributed to this $12.3 million fund… “Lawmakers weren’t forthcoming that extraordinary funding was actually being deducted (or stolen, you use your own description) from state aid that districts were supposed to be getting this year. Lost funding for the Scott County school district is $21,560; in Wichita County it’s $11,965; and in the Dighton district it’s $6,859. “Conservative lawmakers were content with taking credit for their generosity until confronted with the truth by Dan Brungardt, superintendent of the Bonner...
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Leave a Comment Kansas School Finance: At a Crossroads
This is a well-written summary. Click here for the blog post and embedded photos: https://stephanametzger.wordpress.com/2015/09/15/kansas-school-finance-at-a-crossroads/ Kansas School Finance: At a Crossroads by Stephan A. Metzger I’m back to my roots. Education finance in Kansas has been getting a fair amount of news coverage in recent weeks, and for good reason. The first is that the Governor has created a new committee tasked with doing leg work in creating a new finance formula for the state’s 286 school districts. This is a big deal. It makes the prospect of going back to the old, not at all broken, formula virtually...
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Leave a Comment Governor’s communications director derisive
We agree. “Melika Willoughby apparently is paid to be derisive – and with public tax dollars, no less. Gov. Sam Brownback’s deputy director of communications mocked ‘ever-litigating’ school districts and the media in a newsletter e-mailed last week. She called criticisms of school-funding levels ‘flimsy’ and ‘easily refuted’ — even though the state has lost every school-funding lawsuit. In a newsletter last month, she accused editorial boards and union leaders of engaging in ‘bombastic talk’ about school funding. Earlier in the summer, she claimed that Kansas City, Kan., school district complaints about funding were the latest example of...
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