On the very last day of the Kansas Legislative session, lawmakers decided the biggest item of their budget — $6.3 billion to fund K-12 public schools.
Across the 90 days, USD 257 Superintendent of Schools Stacey Fager girded himself for any number of outcomes as the educational landscape began to feel more and more like quicksand.
“The process has become so politicized,” Fager said Monday afternoon. “Funding education used to be fairly apolitical and straight forward.”
“Now we’re having to educate the public about what we’re dealing with at the state level because a lot of the policies are so detrimental to public education.”
Welcome to the culture wars.
DESPITE the setbacks, Fager said Friday’s legislation, Senate Bill 113, is “good enough.”
“It funds public education,” he said, emitting an audible sigh.
Still, he feels bludgeoned.
For starters, the plan slams special education.
Since 2011, funding for special education — which is decided separately from general education — has been shortchanged.
Today, special education is underfunded by $160 million, according to the Kansas Association of School Boards.
With the state’s coffers flush, Gov. Laura Kelly requested special ed receive $72.4 million for each of the next five years to comply with state law that requires the state pay 92% of the excess costs incurred by special education.
Instead, legislators increased its budget a paltry 1% — $7.5 million — for the next two years.
As a result, local school districts are forced to use their own general education dollars to make up the difference.
THE NEW legislation also raises the tax write-off limit from 70% to 75% to provide scholarships for students to attend private schools with a maximum donation of $500,000.
