What does it take to fix school finance?
A. Increase funding at least $600M to achieve adequacy. This is the balance of the amount needed, in addition to the $293M provided by SB 19, to reach the State Board of Education requested an amount of $893M.
The system must be “reasonably calculated to have all Kansas public education students meet or exceed the standards set out in Rose…” The State Board has determined that this funding request will meet this test.
B. Fix four equity violations identified by the Supreme Court.
“[S]chool districts must have reasonably equal access to substantially similar educational opportunity through similar tax effort.”
1. Remove the expansion of capital outlay authority that allowed utilities and property and casualty insurance as permissible capital outlay expenditures.
2. Remove the protest petition/election process for increases to LOB, allowing all districts to raise the same percentage of LOB simply on a local board of education vote.
3. Remove the delay of LOB equalization funding caused by equalizing on the prior year LOB. LOB equalization needs to be paid on the current year LOB budget.
4. Remove the 10% at-risk floor which provided at-risk funding to only two districts for students they do not have.
C. Avoid new parochial equity-busting changes to the system.
“[S]chool districts must have reasonably equal access to substantially similar educational opportunity through similar tax effort.”
Schools for Fair Funding 