School Funding Stuff

I got so caught up in Darwin Day festivities last week that I haven't posted on the school funding issues lately. Let me try to bring you up to date as best I can.

1. Governor Sebelius proposed a budget that would, in essence, cut school funding by $11 per pupil.

2. The state senate brought forward a bill that slashed state funding across the board. This would have resulted in a cut to schools of about $117 per student. On the floor of the senate, bi-partisan amendments were proposed and accepted that reduced this amount to $33 per student.

3. The house of representatives brought forward a bill that would cut funding by $88 per pupil. On the floor, amendments were accepted that reduced this cut to $66. These cuts would include cuts to special education.

4. A committee of senators and representatives met to iron out the differences in the two chambers' bills. The senate refused to budge from their school cuts. There was also some disagreement on funding for certain social services. Unable to reach an agreement, the committee is adjourned.

5. House and senate leaders push through a "compromised" bill that is essential the same bill passed by the house. Cuts to schools are $66 per pupil, and would also affect special education. The bill is then sent on to the governor for signing. At the time, there was speculation about what she would do. Her options were a) sign the bill into law, b) veto the bill outright, or c)sign the bill but use her power to line-item veto those things that she doesn't like.

Last week, the State of Kansas stopped issuing income tax refunds due to budget shortfalls. Yesterday, the leadership of the Kansas house and senate refused to allow Governor Sebelius to borrow some money to cover these expenses, along with the state payroll which goes out later this week, unless she first signed the budget bill into law. This left the state of Kansas at a stalemate, with thousands of government employers at risk of not getting paid on time.

Today, it was announced that the leadership of the legislature was willing to meet with the governor to discuss the borrowing of money. This seems to be good news. Also this afternoon, the governor signed the budget bill (actually called a "recision" bill) into law, but line-item vetoed the school funding cuts, including the special education cuts, and replaced them with cuts of $33 that matched the bi-partisan bill passed by the senate. I'm sure this stuff will continue to develop in the next few days, and I'll do my best (in a biology teacher-not-a-government-guy type of way) to keep this blog updated.

It's important that we keep the following in mind:
1. These cuts affect the CURRENT SCHOOL YEAR. They have only begun preliminary work on the budget that will cover the 09-10 school year.
2. The money to cover expenses would be borrowed using a "certificate of indebtedness." It's my understanding that these are used relatively frequently to cover short-term funding shortfalls.
3. When the legislative leadership demanded that the governor sign the budget recision bill before they approved the certificate of indebtedness, the governor had not yet received the bill, much less had a chance to review it.
4. Advocacy for one group should not imply opposition for other groups. By advocating for public education I do not stand if opposition to other state programs such as higher education. It is the governments responsibility to fund each and every program that they have established. In times of revenue shortfalls, cutting those programs (especially in the middle of a fiscal year) cannot be the only options discussed.

School Funding

It's late, but I wanted to get this posted before I got to bed.

The Kansas House today took up debate on their version of the budget bill. If you remember, on Friday the appropriations committee sent a bill to the floor that would have cut K-12 school funding by $88 per student. The bill that came through debate this afternoon decreased that amount to "only" $66 per pupil. Amendments were brought forward that would have decreased that amount to the $33 per pupil cut that the senate bill stipulated, but those amendments failed along party lines. (Meaning republicans--including the representative from our district--voted for the larger cuts, democrats for smaller).

The House will have their final action on this bill tomorrow. From there it will go back to the Senate.

The department of education has released this document, which compares the cuts to each district in Kansas for the three proposals (Governor, Senate, and House). Keep in mind that these cuts are for the current fiscal year. This is money that the districts have been told they would get and have budgeted for.

More School Funding Stuff

This is how these things go. Last week the Kansas Senate passed a revised budget that would have limited the cuts to public K-12 education. Now the bill is in the House, and on Friday that chamber's appropriations committee brought forward an alternative bill that would slash school funding in a fashion similar to the original senate bill.

To better understand all these bills, it might be easiest to look at them in terms of how much money would be cut from the "base state aid per pupil" BSAPP. This is the amount of money that the state of Kansas pays districts for each student enrolled in their schools.

Under the governor's budget, schools would loose about $22/student. The bill that came out of the Senate ways and means committee would have cut about $117/student. The compromised bill which passed the Senate last week would have cut $33/student. The bill now moving to the floor of the house would cut $88/student.

To do the math, consider that our school district has about 1400 students. The total base amount cut from the district's budget, then, can be calculated by multiplying the BSAPP by 1400. Keep in mind that this is a simple way to compare these plans. Many of the proposed cuts would actually cut significantly more since reducing the BSAPP also reduces the amounts that districts can collect through sources such as the local options budget or new facilities weighting.

Federal Economic Stimulus

One of the items included in the federal economic stimulus bill that's making its' way through the US Congress is money for public education. Here is a handy PDF file that shows what each school district in Kansas would receive if this bill was enacted into law in its current form. USD 491 would receive over $250,000 for the current fiscal year and over $450,000 over two years. These funds would help to ensure that districts could continue to provide adequate education for at-risk and disabled students.

The bill passed the House yesterday on a vote of 244-188.

Senate Bill Ammended

From the Lawrence Journal World:

The Kansas Senate on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a compromise budget measure that makes smaller cuts in education and social services than what Republican leaders had wanted.

The 25-15 vote would reduce public school funding by approximately three-quarters of one percent, human services by 1.5 percent and higher education and the rest of state government by about 4.5 percent.

The good news here, for schools at least, is that K-12 public education may not be cut by nearly as much as was first discussed.

Threatened Cuts to School Funding

Tomorrow (January 12), the Kansas Senate is scheduled to debate a budget that was proposed by the Republican leadership of the Ways and Means committee. This budget is a response to the budget released by Governor Sebelius earlier in the month. At issue is how to balance the state's budget for the current fiscal year, which has seen a sharp decrease in tax revenues due to the toilet-bowl state of the economy.

The governor's budget addressed the anticipated $180 million shortfall by reducing funding to local governments and higher education, delaying the phase out of the corporate franchise tax, initiating a state hiring freeze, and making cuts to specific social services. While this budget plan doesn't cut funding for K-12 education, it does prevent public schools from collecting about $165 million in money that had been previously allocated for them.

The bill that will be on the senate floor tomorrow provides for a $300 million budget cut by reducing state spending by 3.4% across the board. If enacted, this plan would strip Kansas schools of about $110 million for this fiscal year. And since since the cut is "across the board", it would not only affect the "base" amount given to schools, but would also affect special education and at-risk funding, along with programs that are important for smaller, poorer districts that serve greater numbers of "at risk" students. The result of this is that these cuts would have a much greater impact on smaller districts than on the larger, wealthier districts that make up the suburbs of Kansas City and Wichita.

Our district would loose over $250,000 under the republican plan. This would be financially devastating for our schools. You can use this link from KNEA to look up and contact your legislators and let them know that you agree there are better ways to balance the budget then to cripple public schools.