Most Kansas City metropolitan-area districts wouldn’t fare any better under Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposed school funding formula than they do under the current one.
When the governor’s policy director, Landon Fulmer, presented the plan to the Kansas State Board of Education during their meeting this morning, he also provided a spread sheet. It details state funding for every district in the state using both the current and proposed new formulas. Of the 12 local districts on the Kansas side of the state line, only two — Lansing and Piper — show funding increases under Brownback’s plan. One district’s increase is less than 1 percent, and the other’s is not much more than 5 percent. No other district shows any increase or decline.
Art Credit: KC Education Enterprise
According to Fulmer, the governor wants to change the school funding formula in order to stabilize education funding in the state. Under the current formula, districts are supposed to receive a certain amount per student, with extra money for students with special needs. However, critics say school funding would not be unstable if the governor had not cut funding for education in order to balance the budget. Since the start of the Great Recession led to a decline in state revenues, Kansas has not fully funded the existing school finance formula.
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Related Story: Kansas State Board of Education Hears Details of Governor’s School Finance Proposal
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