Voice For Liberty

Wichita school district spending on administration

Bob Weeks

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Could the Wichita public school district reduce spending on administration to previous levels?

In fiscal 2006 (the school year ending in 2006), the Wichita public school district spent $32,799,723 on administration. The amount rose and fell and rose again, with the district spending $42,353,120 in 2015.

Wichita school district spending on administration. Click for larger.
Wichita school district spending on administration. Click for larger.
If we express these figures on a per-student basis and adjust them for inflation, the district spent $851 in 2006, and $896 in 2015. Like spending in total dollars, that figure rose, then fell, and then rose again.

Could the Wichita public school district cut administration spending to 2006 levels, on a per-student, inflation-adjusted basis?

If the district could do this, that would reduce costs by $45 per student. With FTE enrollment for 2015 at 47,254.4, the district could save $2,126,448. Or it could use those savings to offset reductions in spending in other areas.

It’s up to the Wichita school district to decide.

—
Spending data is from USD 259 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for 2015, Miscellaneous Statistics, page 122.
Enrollment data from Kansas State Department of Education, available at http://www.ksde.org/Portals/0/School%20Finance/data_warehouse/total_expenditures/d0259exp.pdf.
Data adjusted for inflation using Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Comments

3 responses to “Wichita school district spending on administration”

  1. Mike

    When I first started working at USD 259, the administration building was the small building north of Kellogg on Broadway. Even though enrollment dropped they moved to the larger building on N. Water, known as the Twin Towers, north of where the admin building is now and added associate superintendents. The Twin Towers were sold and the admin moved next door into the old CIG building at considerable cost. Then the ISC Building, the old IRS building, was purchased and more administrators were added. Not counting all the redundant administrators at the Service Center.

  2. Paul Waggoner

    Great analysis and pointing out how, in many school districts, the problem really is not the manage, it is the management!!

  3. Paul Waggoner

    Oops, typo above!! it should read “the problem really is not the MONEY, it is the management!!” PW

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