Because Kansas legislators are so familiar with trickle-down economics, they will be quick to grasp the correlation between underfunded schools and falling test scores by Kansas students.
Just as with our state economy, if it’s not funded, it doesn’t work.
That’s the reasoning behind Monday’s Kansas Supreme Court ruling that legislators need to further up the ante in funding public education.
While this summer’s decision to add $293 million over the next two years is a step in the right direction, it still falls short of what is needed to get state education back on track.
Once, Kansas was known for its superior schools. Today, they are middling.
Five years running, the scores of Kansas high-schoolers taking the ACT exam have dropped in reading, English, math and science. The exams, which almost three-fourths of all high-schoolers take, help judge a student’s readiness for higher education.
This is important because in three years’ time, more than 70 percent of jobs in Kansas will require employees to have a postsecondary certificate or degree, according to a national study conducted by the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce.
The same metric applies to teacher retention.
If they aren’t paid well, the good ones go elsewhere.
As of mid-September, there were about 90 elementary teacher vacancies across the state and another 80-plus for special ed, according to the Kansas Department of Education.
Last summer’s infusion to education allowed school districts to throw money at teachers to get them to stay.
Of course, they can’t make up for years of negligence in one fell swoop. Ever since 2009, per pupil funding in Kansas has been on a steady decline. Then, base aid per pupil funding was $4,400. Eight years later, it’s down by $400. The state Board of Education contends it needs another $600 million to make up for this and scores of other cuts.
Even more difficult is turning the tide on the perception that Kansas legislators give a damn. Not only have legislators failed to adequately meet the needs of Kansas schools, but they have doomed the system in perpetuity by saying after these two years of infusions they would tie any future increases to the rate of inflation.
If only the cost of health insurance — a bane to every employer, including school districts — were tied to inflation, which currently sits at 1.9 percent. For the last 10 years inflation has averaged 1.8 percent. So, in essence, tying school funding to the rate of inflation would result in huge cuts.
“We will not allow ourselves to be placed in the position of being complicit actors,” of such legislation, the justices wrote in their decision.
PREDICTABLY, Republican leaders are acting offended by the high court’s decision, saying they will not cower.
And do what? Ruin our schools?
The court’s decision sounds the alarm that such patchwork legislation is full of holes. Legislators need to plan for future generations, not just today.
— Susan Lynn
