An education finance plan unveiled by Gov. Sam Brownback means Allen County schools will receive more state dollars if the proposal becomes law during the upcoming legislative session. Still, some educators and advocacy groups say the governor’s revised education finance formula doesn’t go far enough in ensuring Kansas public schools are adequately funded. Others say the plan only muddies the waters.
The plan, to take effect during the 2013-14 school year if passed, would give local school boards additional spending power and unfettered power to increase local property taxes while modestly increasing the state’s contribution to public education.
All three school districts in Allen County would see increases in state funds received under Brownback’s proposal, and the statewide education funding would increase by $43 million.
Though the plan benefits rural schools — more than half of 182 districts that would see increases have 500 or fewer students — and results in an additional $350,578 for Iola, $274,292 for Humboldt and $183,899 for Marmaton Valley, USD 257 Superintendent Brian Pekarek said the governor’s proposition is still dangerous.
The plan would scrap a two-decade-old practice of linking some districts’ spending authority specifically to the number of students at risk of failing — non-English speaking, minority, poor or single-parent students. Rather, the existing base state aid per pupil amount of $3,780 would be raised to $4,492 per student.
Pekarek said the existing weighted allocations were put in place because it takes more resources to educate certain segments of the student population. If Iola’s at-risk levels increase from this year’s 65 percent, the state would not provide any additional funds to ensure those students are adequately taught, said USD 257’s top administrator.
“That’s the scary difference,” Pekarek said. “They’ll be funding our kids like they fund the Johnson County kids that have plenty of money to go around.”
The converse is also true.
Under the governor’s plan, districts would not see funding decrease if at-risk levels reduce. Kansas schools would only see budgets downsized if student enrollment shrank under Brownback’s plan.
While doing away with the weightings, the governor’s plan takes money from a statewide property tax levy — projected at $538 million for the 2013-14 school year — and distributes it based on each district’s property wealth, with poorer districts getting a larger share.
The governor made a statement last week suggesting the changes will make the state’s school finance formula more transparent, focus more dollars in classrooms and end a “cycle of litigation” over how more than $3 billion in education funds are distributed.
But if the governor thinks his proposal is safe from a long, drawn-out litigation process, he’s got another think coming.
John Robb, attorney for Schools for Fair Funding, Inc., a lobbying outfit suing the state for reneging on properly funding the existing formula, said the new proposal would set Kansas education “back 30 years.”
“The plan doesn’t solve anything. As a matter of fact, it makes things much worse. There’s nothing wrong with the current formula other than the fact that the legislature has underfunded it,” Robb said.
Because Brownback’s plan distributes locally raised education dollars based on property valuations and does not take into account other at-risk factors, Robb said the proposal will be challenged if it becomes law.
