State’s ‘safety net’ for schools full of holes; pleas go unheeded

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opinions

August 26, 2015 - 12:00 AM

Requests for additional funding by 39 school districts were for the most part denied Monday, regardless of increased student numbers or decreased property values.
Instead, they were told to buck up and act more like the private sector, which can’t go begging every time the numbers look bad.
That’s the justification Susan Wagle, Kansas Senate president and member of the council that reviewed the special requests, gave to district superintendents in denying the bulk of requests.
If the workaday world can absorb fluctuations in profits and losses so, too, should school districts, she said.
The comparison, of course, falls flat on its face because a public school’s budget is financed 100 percent by public entities. A district has no role in raising funds to educate students or pay teachers.
Private industries, on the other hand, have all sorts of “wiggle room” to adjust to fluctuations in supply and demand. The local gas station, for example, can raise the price on a gallon of gasoline if the price of oil jumps. Same goes for crops that fall victim to natural disasters.
Wagle maintains schools should be able to accept a 2 percent variation in increased expenses with no ill effect.
Under this formula, Wyandotte USD 500 will receive one-fourth the funding it requested.
The district experienced a 2.5 percent — 507 students — increase this year. Instead of receiving about $2 million in additional funding — using the current state formula of $3,987 per pupil — it will receive $407,548.
In normal times, Garden City celebrates an increase in school enrollment. This year’s increase of 120 students, however, is seen as a burden. The increase of 1.68 percent falls short of Wagle’s yardstick. Their request for $478,847 was met with a big, fat zero.
Other cities where their schools received either goose eggs or a slight fraction of their requests were Kansas City’s Piper, Manhattan, Bonner Springs, Hutchinson and Wichita.
More than $8 million was requested by districts to help make ends meet because of increased enrollment. Of that, a tad more than $2 million was allotted.

MOST OF the additional funding went to school districts that have experienced decreased property values, though that, too, fell short of requests.
Nearby Woodson County requested $99,900 in additional aid. Instead, it received $11,435.
Of the almost $6.5 million in requests because of property devaluation, slightly more than $4 million was granted.

LEGISLATIVE leaders comprise the State Finance Council, chaired by Gov. Brownback. As in everything to do with government these days, politics played a role. Members voted along party lines whether to follow Wagle’s 2 percent threshold.
When the block grant funding was designed by legislators this spring, a “safety net” of funds was set aside to meet “extraordinary means.”
Looks as if it has a lot of holes.
— Susan Lynn

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