School funding: A look at proposals from the legislature and Governor
With its January 2005 ruling, the Kansas Supreme Court made clear its expectations of the legislature regarding the funding of public schools in Kansas. The court found the legislature had failed to meet its burden imposed under Article 6 of the Kansas Constitution to “make suitable provision for finance” of public schools and gave legislators until April 12 to “improve education” by spending more money and distributing that money more fairly.
Governor’s Budget Recommendation
Governor Kathleen Sebelius signaled her expectation that the legislature generate the response to the court’s ruling when she released her FY 2006 budget proposal. In a budget based on existing resources, the Governor recommended that funding for public schools remain at its current level of nearly $2.8 billion. Last year, the Governor proposed a $300 million increase in sales and income taxes to be phased in over three years to increase funding for schools. The 2004 Legislature quickly defeated the Governor’s proposal and failed to enact numerous others. While making it clear the onus was now on the legislature to generate a proposal that will satisfy the court, Governor Sebelius has pledged to work with the legislature to increase funding to schools in order to guarantee a high quality education for all Kansas students.
Although the base state aid per pupil (BSAPP) and funding for special education are static under the Governor’s budget recommendations, she has included increased funding for the Four-Year-Old At-Risk and Parent Education programs. The Governor is recommending an additional $1 million to fund a half-day education program for an additional 500 four-year-old at-risk students. Currently, the state contributes approximately $12.8 million to serve up to 5,500 four-year-old at-risk students. The Governor recommends increasing funding for Parent Education by $150,000 from $7,167,000 to $7,317,000.
The Governor is also proposing to restore funding for two state aid programs currently not funded by the legislature that are designed to improve teacher quality and retention in our state. The Governor’s proposal includes $1 million to provide up to $1,000 for each mentor teacher supporting teachers in their first year of teaching and $2.5 million for staff development. In addition, the Governor is recommending $325,000 to fund the Kansas Performance Assessment, which new teachers must take to demonstrate their competence in the classroom. Without this additional funding, teachers would likely be required to bear the cost through increased certification fees.
Senate Education Committee
Since the release of the Governor’s budget recommendations, both the Senate Education Committee and the House Select Committee on School Finance have approved school finance plans. The Senate plan would increase funding for schools by $147,111,000 in the first year. The plan would be funded through existing revenues and includes a $120 increase to the BSAPP and a $5 million increase in local option budget state aid. Under the Senate plan, funding for special education would increase from 81.7 percent of excess costs to 85 percent. Local districts would be able to increase their local option budgets (LOB) to 27 percent of their general fund budgets, rather than the current 25 percent. That would require an increase in supplemental general state aid of $10 million. Several weightings would increase under the plan, including at-risk weighting, which would go from .10 to .15, and bilingual weighting, which would go from .20 to .30. Correlation weighting, which is designed to provide additional funding to large schools, would be available to schools with enrollments at or above 1,700. Currently, schools must have enrollments of at least 1,725 to receive correlation weighting.
House Select Committee on School Finance
The plan approved by the House Select Committee on School Finance would increase funding for schools by $135,858,000. The increase would come from existing revenue. Under the House plan, the BSAPP would increase to $4,187. That includes an $80 increase, plus $244 that would come from savings generated by eliminating correlation weighting and reducing the low enrollment weighting.
The House plan calls for expanding the definition of at-risk students to include those eligible for reduced priced lunches, as well as those eligible for free lunches. This would require an additional $18.6 million in state aid, although the current weighting would not change. Funding for bilingual education would be increased by approximately $11 million, or the weighting would be increased to .40. Special education funding would be increased to 85 percent of excess costs.
The plan also calls for equalizing the capital outlay levy up to four mills using the bond and interest state aid ratios. Under this provision, a cap of eight mills is placed on capital outlay, unless the school district already has a higher mill levy prior to the effective date of the bill. The higher mill levy could continue until its expiration, at which time the levy limit would be eight mills, however only four mills will be equalized.
The House plan includes numerous other provisions. Among the more significant of the 17 amendments added to the bill is a requirement that districts that only accept out-of-state students under one of the following conditions: the student was enrolled in the district in 2004-05, the parent is an employee of the school district, or the parent pays property taxes in Kansas.
Another provision of the plan requires that all foreign exchange students enrolled in a school district on Sept. 20 must be enrolled and attending at least one semester to be counted in the school district’s enrollment.
The plan also authorizes local boards of education to increase their local option budgets (LOBs) from the current limit of 25 percent of their general fund to 30 percent subject to a resolution and protest petition. State equalization aid will increase to 26 percent in 2005-06 and to 28 percent in 2006-07 and thereafter. Other amendments create the Skills for Success grant program to provide funding primarily for reading and mathematics programs for grades K-3, and create a nine-member Legislative Education Council. The chairs of the House and Senate Education Committees would be members of the council, with the remaining members chosen by the legislative leadership. The legislative post auditor and the Attorney General would serve as ex-officio members.
The plan also directs the Legislative Division of Post Audit to conduct a professional cost study analysis to determine the costs of delivering the K-12 curriculum, related services and other programs mandated by state statute.
To read more about the plan and its various amendments, look for the bill summary under hot topics at www.ksde.org.