As anticipated, a three-judge panel in Shawnee County ruled Friday the Legislature must increase funding for the state’s public schools to at least $4,492 for each student effective with the 2014 budget, which is determined by the 2013 Legislature.
The ruling came as a result of a lawsuit filed by a group of parents and school districts, including Iola’s USD 257. The plaintiffs argued the cuts in school funding over the past six years were unconstitutional. A Supreme Court ruling in 2006 set the $4,492 minimum level. Legislatures since then have cut funding to the current $3,763 for each student. Lawmakers cited the recession as justification for the reduction. That argument, however, lost credibility in 2013 when the economy partially recovered and the Legislature made the biggest tax cuts in the state’s history.
How lawmakers respond to the court’s decision remains to be seen. The state is expected to appeal the panel’s decision, sending the matter to the Supreme Court again.
The Legislature, however, need not wait for the high court to act. The constitution requires schools be funded well enough to give Kansas children a good education, as defined by comparisons to schools in other states and by standards established by educators. The $4,492 per child level was set several years ago. Inflation has reduced the value of the dollar since then so the adjusted figure would be substantially higher.
The Legislature could act this week. It could raise per capita funding to, say, $5,000, and hike taxes enough to cover the projected budget shortfall and fund our schools adequately.
That won’t happen, of course. Those who voted less than a year ago to slash state income taxes across the board were reinforced by the election of a new crop of conservatives in both the House and Senate. Gov. Sam Brownback appointed a commission to look for ways to cut school spending and can be expected to ask the Legislature to implement its recommendations. When the judges issued their ruling, they predicted an increase in property taxes without going into detail.
A statewide property tax levy now provides most of the money the state spends on the public schools, with the balance provided from the general fund and local property taxes. If the statewide levy is increased to provide the increase the courts may demand, the bulk of the money will come from Johnson County, Coffey County with its nuclear plant, and the other high-dollar areas of the state with high assessed valuations.
That’s where the money is — and that’s also where the state’s wealthy and politically powerful people and businesses are. It will be surprising if the Legislature hikes the statewide property tax enough to raise whatever more is needed to comply with the final legal decision.
Keep in mind there are only three major sources of tax money available to the Legislature: Taxes on incomes, sales and property. Income taxes took a huge hit last year and Gov. Sam Brownback and the conservative majorities in the House and Senate have their sights set on eliminating the tax on individuals and businesses altogether. Take that option off the table. So that leaves the sales tax as the most likely target.
But that levy is due to fall by six-tenths of a cent this year because that increase was sold as a temporary way to deal with the recession and many lawmakers say they won’t go back on their promise.
THE POLITICS of taxation have come home to roost. Tax levels should be based on the citizenry’s need for governmental services. Taxes should be a means, not an end. Governments, at all levels, should set their agenda of service, then decide how to raise the money to provide it. Over the past decade or so, that approach has been abandoned in favor of an ideology which makes low taxes the aim of government and puts the needs of the people in second place — or ignores them.
This cart-before-the-horse approach now dominates in Topeka — and will make it particularly difficult this year to give the children of Kansas the kind of education they will need to cope in today’s information-based world economy.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
