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By Linda Mowery-Denning
Last Updated: November 04, 2009
Dale Dennis, the state's high priest of school finance, recently worried aloud that Kansas could come up $70 million short of being able to fully fund education this school year. This comes after a 4.8 percent reduction in per-pupil aid already for 2009-10.
The potential shortfall is the product of several factors, including the weak economy, increased enrollment statewide and lower property values.
The bad times aren't expected to end anytime soon, in fact, some state education officials say even bigger cuts in school funding are possible in the next two years.
What to do?
If you're from the Claflin School District, you reach out. Administrators and school board members from Claflin and the Lorraine-based USD 328, which has schools at Wilson, Holyrood and Bushton, plan to meet in early November to talk about areas of cooperation. USD 328 Superintendent Lenny Gales said everything will be on the table, including, one assumes, some form of consolidation. No one wants to be pushy or worse — predatory — but because much of USD 328's territory is in Ellsworth County, we'd like to see the Ellsworth-Kanopolis-Geneseo School Board involved as well. Such discussions could benefit everyone.
What not to do?
Twenty-nine Kansas school districts have joined Schools for Fair Funding, a coalition of districts considering litigation to force the Kansas Legislature to increase school funding. Such activity would be understandable if the state's schools were being targeted for reductions in funding or the money was available and not being shared. Neither is the case.
The Kansas Department of Corrections has closed prisons. The state's court system faces a major cutback in services if money isn't restored. The waiting lists of those in need of public assistance grows with the recession. The list of cuts and needs goes on ...
Ellsworth County's two school districts have not joined Schools for Fair Funding. We hope they resist the temptation to do so.
Times are difficult enough. Educators and their attorneys shouldn't make them worse by pitting the state's 293 school districts against everyone else.
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