After increasing 74 percent over the last 10 years, per-pupil funding for Kansas K-12 education will likely face more reductions as the local economy slows and federal stimulus dollars run out over the next two years.

Despite the perception of deep cuts in response to the state's budget crises, the reduction in kindergarten to 12th-grade education funding for the 2009-2010 school year is only $29 per pupil, after adding state, local, regular federal and federal stimulus dollars, according to the Kansas Department of Education.

Most public discussion has focused on the cut to the base state aid per pupil, from $4,400 in 2009 to $4,280 for 2010. But that’s just the base aid. Schools get additional state money for a number of reasons including aid for poor students, special needs students, districts that are too small and districts that are too big. All sources of state aid for 2010 total $6,677 per student.

Add state funding to federal and local education dollars, and Kansas is planning to spend $12,525 per student next school year, down just $29 from $12,554 in 2009. By comparison, private school tuition at Wichita Collegiate averages $11,776 for the 2009-1010 school year; Wichita Independent’s average tuition is $8,100.

In 2008, lawmakers approved an additional $59 per pupil increase for K-12 education in 2010. A further 3.7 percent inflation adjustment planned by the Legislature was intended to provide a total of $4,597 BSAPP. That increase won’t happen because legislators had no idea of the fiscal realities they would face in 2010.

An infusion of Federal stimulus money will replace much of the lost state education funding but only delay challenging school finance decisions.

More trouble ahead

Kansas typically lags behind national economic trends, so further cuts will almost certainly be needed if Kansas’ economy follows the national trend. Economic growth continued in Kansas in 2008 according to a June 2 report by the Commerce Department but at a slower pace in 2008. Kansas’ Gross Domestic Product increased 2.2 percent in 2008, down from 3.1 percent in 2007 and 3.5 percent in 2006.

As more businesses announce layoffs and the economy worsens in Kansas, the gap between actual revenues and spending hopes will likely force further cuts for K-12 education, which consumes more than half of state revenues.

Revenue shortfalls caused mid-year cuts in 2009 spending and a forced a big cut in total state spending for 2010. The Legislature directed American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds to make up for much of the shortfall in state K-12 spending rather than allow school districts to take an equal share of state spending cuts. State revenues missed the mark again in May after legislators settled school funding for 2010.

A 2009 House budget committee report warned of trouble ahead. “While the (stimulus) funding provides immediate budgetary relief to the state in fiscal years 2009, 2010, and 2011, it also allows expenditures to grow for three years. After that period of time, federal stimulus will be cut off, without additional federal dollars in place to offset State General Fund financed expenditures. If no revenue growth is available to keep up with the additional expenditure growth, the fiscal situation that the state is currently experiencing may be even more difficult than it is today.”

The report goes on to warn that a short-term fix may only allow a long-term problem to worsen.

Possible lawsuit

Some education supporters say schools are still underfunded and that recent cuts violate a Kansas Supreme Court decision ordering increased funding. Newton School Superintendent John Morton recently suggested it was time to sue the state again to compel further increases in school funding.

Morton is a member of Schools for Fair Funding, which brought the Montoy vs. State and Robinson vs. State lawsuits.

The state is now spending about a billion dollars more on K-12 education than before the lawsuits. Over the past 10 years, statewide enrollment has remained flat at about 448,000 students.

John Robb, counsel for Schools for Fair Funding, doesn’t expect a decision on a new lawsuit until well into the fall. He says a suit would have an excellent chance of succeeding because the increased funding ordered by the courts and promised by the legislature was curtailed this year.

Kansas Rep. Jason Watkins, R-Wichita, says further cuts to school funding must be considered. “Buying into the argument that schools can’t be cut is ridiculous. They may have increasing standards, but so do other segments of the government.”

Watkins rejects the common refrain that if you’re not for carte-blanche school spending increases, you’re against kids. “At some point the public is going to reject that.”

Walt Chappel, a member of the Kansas Board of Education representing Wichita, said he’s trying to look at school funding as a businessman and educator.

“How can we possibly say to anyone we should raise taxes and get more revenue when schools are already receiving 51 percent of the budget and we don’t have any evidence that increased funding has anything to do with increased achievement? How much money is enough?”

Even after the planned reductions for the coming school year, per-pupil state aid will be 42 percent higher than it was 10 years ago.

Watkins said he thinks another lawsuit would fail. “I’m not so sure they’re going to have the same outcome this time from the Supreme Court. I think the court overstepped their bounds.”

Public sentiment will be different in the midst of a recession, says Watkins. “I almost guarantee they’ll get a different perspective from the public. Montoy happened at a time when people weren’t as worried about their jobs and their own budgets.”

Watkins isn’t so sure about the Legislature’s willingness to stand up to the education lobby. “I’m afraid as powerful as the school lobby is I don’t think there’s the will within the current makeup of the Kansas Legislature to cut school budgets. The only way that’s not going to be the case is if the voters go to the polls informed.”

“State government needs to be like any household or business. You don’t just have a blank check called the taxpayers' wallet,” Watkins said.

There seems to be agreement that Kansas doesn’t have the money to satisfy school funding requests. The question is whether the Legislature will deal with it by increasing taxes, further cutting other state services or by standing up to the education lobby and forcing schools to deal with the economic realities that face all other Kansans.

- Paul Soutar

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Paul Soutar is an Investigative Reporter with the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy. For details visit www.flinthills.org.  This article has been edited for publication by Kansas Liberty.

The Week in Review