By Dr. WALT CHAPPELL
Former member, Kansas State Board of Education
The next time a candidate for state legislature promises to “fully fund education”, ask them how much more they will raise your taxes.
Already, 51% of our state budget goes to local school boards. This leaves very little for any other essential programs.
Kansas is 4th in the nation on the amount of state taxes going to local schools. So, how much is enough?
According to the National Association of School Budget Officers, in FY2012, Texas spent 41.7%, Colorado spent 39.1%, Missouri spent 34.9%, Nebraska spent 30.4% and Oklahoma spent 30.4%.
Alabama spent 55.1% of their state taxes on K-12 schools, yet has some of the lowest test scores in America. However, Massachusetts spent 18.3% and consistently has the highest student achievement scores.
Clearly, the amount of money a state legislature appropriates has little to do with the level of their students’ academic achievement. In Kansas, some districts spend as little as $8,000 per student while other districts spend as high as $27,000 per student to get the same results.
In addition, for most people, the property taxes they pay goes primarily for local schools. Yet, the total amount spent by their district administrators keeps going up.
So, it is finally time that Kansas parents, students, local school board members, teachers, legislators, judges and taxpayers are told the truth about how $3 billion dollars MORE per year since 1998 are being spent to educate the same number of K-12 students. During all these years, the national NAEP and ACT test scores continue to show that only 1-in-3 Kansas students is actually proficient enough to succeed in college or start a career.
For too long, false and misleading information from the State Department of Education, Kansas Association of School Boards and paid “school lobbyists” have tried to convince the public and Supreme Court that K-12 schools are UNDERFUNDED. Yet three times since 2001, state education staff deliberately lowered the percent correct answers to pass the state tests. Then they falsely claimed that nearly 90% of Kansas students were supposedly “proficient.”
In 2015, new state tests were given with more honest passing percentages. The results were “dismal.” But, these are the same low scores for Kansas students reported by national NAEP & ACT tests for nearly 20 years. So why is anyone SURPRISED or claiming that a drop in state test scores is due to not receiving enough money for school administrators to spend??
Obviously, raising our taxes by another $800 million dollars to get the same poor results is NOT THE ANSWER to making sure that Kansas kids are prepared for college or career!
Dr. Walt Chappell is a former member of the Kansas State Board of Education.