School Funding Heats Up Again In Kansas (KS)

September 20, 2010

After schools lost millions of dollars, teachers were laid off and programs were cut, the Kansas Legislature decided something needed to be done.

Now there is a debate on how best to make changes.

In Kansas, communities are not allowed to raise mill levies to pay for education. The state tax rate is the same from border to border.

One representative wants to change that.

"We need to look at restructuring so we can simplify our plan and have more local control to allow school boards to determine how much they’ll spend on education," said Kansas Speaker Pro Tem Arlen Siegfried.

Siegfried will meet with other legislators to talk about possible changes in education funding. Siegfried said 27 percent of all of Kansas school bills are paid by Johnson County tax dollars.

"I think that’s patently unfair," Siefried said. "It allows other people to leverage our money. If they are going to do it, they should have a dog in the fight. They should raise their levies in order to get more money."

Currently every taxpayer in the state pays the same mill levy, but towns with a higher tax base end up sending more money to Topeka, which allows the state to help other lower tax generating district make their budgets. It was set up to ensure equal education regardless of a student’s ZIP code.

"This is not a Republican-Democrat issue," said Sen. David Haley of Kansas City, Kan. "This will be an issue of do we have equal opportunity for all Kansas school children irrespective of where live or irrespective of the GDP of their county or school district."

Haley said he expects the topic to be a hot issue when legislators convene for the session with shortfalls reported to be around $290 million.

"This is the new civil strife that could be formed in education as was decided in 1954 during Brown v. Board," Haley said.

The Department of Education said four meeting are being scheduled to discuss education funding.