Kansas superintendents tell lawmakers: Allocate more funding for schools

Kansas superintendents made the trek to Topeka during the final week of the school year to tell the Senate education finance committee it needs to put more money in its bill.

“We do not believe that the recommended funding level is sufficient to accomplish college workforce readiness as established by Kansans Can and the desire of the state of Kansas to move forward,” said Patricia All, interim superintendent for Olathe Unified School District 233.

Suzan Patton, superintendent of Pratt USD 382, went right to the numbers.

“I believe that $4,006 as base state foundation aid is not sufficient,” she said. Then she enumerated costs that have changed in her small school district, which serves about 1,200 students.

The newly formulated Senate Bill 251, which addresses school financing, proposes $234.5 million over the first two years of the five-year plan beginning with the 2017-18 school year. The House bill supplied $279 million in funding over the first two years. Both plans would fund the remaining three years with an increase based on the Consumer Price Index, although each used different CPI formulas.

Read more: http://cjonline.com/news/state-government/2017-05-18/kansas-superintendents-tell-lawmakers-allocate-more-funding-schools