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What is the real state of Kansas education funding?

“This information should explain why school districts are experiencing budget ‘cuts’ even though funding has remained relatively ‘flat’ since 2009 in actual dollars, not adjusted for inflation. In terms of actual purchasing power, total funding per pupil has declined by over seven percent over the past five years. The portion of school districts budget that can actually be used for general educational purposes, like teacher and support staff salaries, has dropped over 11 percent in real terms.” http://tallmankasb.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-is-real-state-of-kansas-school.html...
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Class sizes aren’t accurately depicted in compilations of data

Here’s some information on class sizes in the SMSD which highlights the danger of relying on compilations of data. Some have asserted that the student teacher ratio in SMSD is 15 to 1, but that fails to recognize that music, PE, art, speech and other teachers are in that number. Those teachers are important, not extra, but that doesn’t mean our children are learning math in a class of 15. One of the hot topics in the ongoing debate over class size right now is what the actual Class Sizes are. For parents – we know how big...
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