Americans for Prosperity-Kansas has released a three-page document that details some facts about Kansas spending on schools and education.
It’s an important topic, as K-12 school spending represents about half of our state’s general fund spending. Education — as we’re reminded by school spending advocates — is also one of the most important things we can provide the children of Kansas. There are also many misconceptions about Kansas school spending, as recently highlighted by Kansas Liberty.
For example: “There have been claims that funding for schools has ‘returned to pre-Montoy levels,’” said AFP-Kansas state director Derrick Sontag. “However the policy primer clearly shows that K-12 education has realized nearly a $1 billion increase in funding since 2004, just prior to the Montoy decision in January of 2005, even though there aren’t that many more students in the system.”
The next legislative session in Kansas, which starts just a little more than a month from today, is likely to be quite contentious. I asked a member of the Kansas senate if it’s going to come down to school spending advocates versus everyone else, and he said yes, that’s about right.
Here’s a few interesting facts presented in the document:
- Kansas leads our neighboring states in school spending, on a per-student basis.
- Kansas schools have an average of 15 teachers per non-classroom supervisors, while Iowa has 24 teachers per non-classroom supervisor.
- “It’s also interesting to note that in Colorado where, according to the teachers unions, TABOR has had a devastating impact on education; the ratio of supervisor to teacher is high for the region, tied with Kansas.”
- “Kansas has not faired well with test scores stagnating despite a huge funding increase.”
AFP’s press release announcing the policy primer is AFP-Kansas educates Kansans on K-12 spending. This page contains a link to the policy primer.