Kudos to Bryan Lowry of the Wichita Eagle‘s Topeka Bureau for his analytical look at education funding in Kansas…
A sentence as balanced as the following has not graced the Kansas City Star since it had daily competition: “Some lawmakers and residents have expressed anger over the cut to the schools’ current-year budget, but others agree with the governor that school spending ought to be reined in and say this offers an opportunity to reform the state’s school finance formula.”
Lowry then works through the numbers.
As he notes, the average amount of state aid per pupil this year will be $8,793. He adds, “Last year, the amount of state aid per student was $8,431.”
Admittedly, I have not had the benefit of Common Core math, but isn’t $8,793 more than $8,431? In fact, this year’s total per pupil seems to be 4.2 percent higher than last year’s.
According to Lowry, “Conservative legislators point out that the overall amount being spent on education remains higher than last year by an average of $362 per student even after the reduction.”
True enough, but one does not need to be a conservative to come to that conclusion.
And one does not need to be a conservative to note that the Star’s relentless use of the words “cutting,” “slashing,” and “stripping” would be more appropriate in a review of a slasher movie than in a sane discussion of Kansas Governor Sam Brownback‘s budget.
Rich Steele is a citizen journalist and head of the NSAAS (Non-Smokers Against Anti-Smoking).
School funding makes up about half the total budget for the state so it’s a logical topic for the heated and acrimonious discussion on cuts by Brownback. Before getting specifically into education, let me first restate my obvious distaste for Brownbacks’, and your perspective that the public sector is and always should be second class. In your’s and Sam’s view, government should never be able to stifle the capitalistic goals of the private sector. To you, government is the enemy. Starve government to death by eliminating taxes. This trickle down approach hasn’t worked on a national scale and clearly hasn’t worked in Kansas. Jobs do not come from companies having huge bank accounts as the result of little or no taxes. “Job creators” hire only when there is demand for their service or product. Government can create jobs and government can create demand but to you, that is heresy.
Steve Rose, who has probably never voted for a democrat in his life, wrote an interesting piece in the Star over the weekend. Steve has clearly made public education in Johnson County a priority and I’m guessing that because of that, people like you regard him as a flaming liberal. His point was that Kansans for the most part seem to be apathetic with regards to most areas in the budget. However, education does have the potential to get their attention. He noted that the consolidation of school districts, especially those tiny ones in the western part of the state, is an obvious way to save money but the voters in western Kansas would revolt if they lost their school district so the ultra conservative legislators don’t dare take that logical step. Can you say, hypocrite.
Clearly there is some fat in public education in Kansas. Liberals will admit that and expect the efficient use of their tax dollars as much as conservatives. Personally I do believe the number of administrators throughout the state, and the payroll that goes with it, is top heavy. Consolidation will address that. I am not a fan of educators double dipping, where they can retire in one district and draw pension money, and then turn around and work in another district at full pay. I’m not a fan of unions protecting sub-standard teachers. Everyone needs to be accountable. However, the bottom line here is that we are really talking about our children. What better investment do we have than our children? Why shouldn’t they have access to the best teachers, the best facilities, the best and broadest curriculums. No one goes into the public sector, no one goes into teaching to get rich. Those that do, in my humble opinion, become educators because they are committed to kids and making their community a better place. There needs to be money to hire good teachers, build good school, and yes, even buy a grand piano. As has been said before and I believe it, money does not solve all problems, but having the money to address the critical area of need as decided by local school boards, is crucial.
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Now, on a separate note, Rich, your fixation on the purchase of a grand piano by Sumner being a flagrant example of waste, got me thinking. If these socialists are wasting our money on musical instruments, what other ridiculous expenditures are school boards making that the Star is ignoring. I spent a little time researching this and came across an unbelievable waste of taxpayer money, a “redistribution or wealth” that demands our wrath. And it is not just happening at Sumner, but across the entire state of Kansas. Right under our noses and the noses of our state legislators. Would you believe that our schools are feeding the children that attend these public schools? I don’t pay taxes to feed other people’s kids. It is not the job of government to feed the children of private citizens. You need to get on this Rich!! These schools and school boards are getting out of hand. If they can get away with spending my hard earned tax dollars on food for kids, what’s next?? They may try to tell me, or my kids and grandkids, that they can’t carry a concealed weapon into a school, (public property). When that happens, it will signal the return of the Hale-Bopp comet. I’ve got my reservations on that spaceship already to exit this world. I can’t live in a world that permits this type of waste and government intrusion. The rest of you people are on your own!
( please note sarcasm font)
“School funding makes up about half the total budget for the state … ” Actually for FY2015 that is more than 63 percent, up from 62 percent in FY2014 and trending toward 65 percent. I think a useful debate might be what percentage is appropriate, along the lines of cutting the coat to fit your cloth, rather than the other way around.
[PDF]STATE OF KANSAS The FY 2015 Governor’s Budget Report …
budget.ks.gov/…/FY2015/FY2015_Comparison_Report–7-10-2014.pdf
FY2014 and FY2016 are online as well.
Thanks Lydia, I will check that out. I don’t know whether that site considers money the legislature puts towards KPERs as school funding, which I do not. But I do appreciate you holding my hands to the fire.
Found the error. I was lazy and just repeated what Rose had written in his editorial in the Star. The state spends 52% of the budget on K-12 education and 12% on higher education. Pretty sure Rose was accurate and his point was about K-12 and not higher education. My bad for not be clear.
Forgot to respond to your comment about cutting the coat to fit the cloth as that really “cuts” to the core as to the difference in our views on this topic. If the cloth is not large enough to cut a coat to properly fit the child, we need more cloth, imho.
Please explain the origin of my debt to other people’s kids. I don’t think that just because they exist due the irresponsibility of parents that can’t afford to care for them that my money should be taken to feed and educate them. Nothing in the constitutions of my state or my country says I have to do this.
If you can’t feed your kids, why does one keep having them?
If you are asking me, Von, while I enjoy challenging Rich’s support of Brownback’s policies, I’m not looking to argue with you. Though I don’t see any positive outcome by taking out the irresponsibility of parents on their children ( Churchill once said “There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies” ), I do understand your perspective and there are plenty of people that agree with you. Thanks for commenting.
Steve Rose inappropriately groped my mom on a few occasions.
Rich, Got a possible topic for you to write about. It’s not completely in your wheelhouse since I don’t think the Star has taken a “liberal” stance on it but it does concern a topic that an institution of public education in Kansas has taken a position that you might regard as government intrusion/liberal. The topic is vaccinations. The Star ran a poll on Monday making four statements and asked readers to respond with four options. Strongly agree/agree/disagree/strongly disagree. Statements were as follows; 1. Children should not be allowed to attend schools unless they are vaccinated. 2. Studies that say vaccines are safe and do not cause autism are flawed, sometimes because they are supported by large pharmaceutical companies. 3. The recent news about measles does not warrant much concern, given the high vaccination rates for the disease. 4. The anti-vaccine crowd places their personal freedom above the good of others, thereby threatening public health. The poll results were listed today and the results were as follows. 62% disagreed or strongly disagreed with # 1. 62% agreed or strongly agreed with #2. #3 came down 50/50. 62% disagreed or strongly disagreed with #4. On the news tonight there was a story that KU has come down with an edict that any student or faculty member that comes down with the measles must stay off campus for 21 days. Do you think an employer has that power with regards to their employees?
What do you think? Is this a topic worthy of Rich Steele’s journalistic attention and opinion? I’m guessing you are in the 62% crowd. Maybe I’m off base but I think this is a topic that would energize your readers.