Education plan leaves unanswered questions

As the dust settles from Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's announcement of a school finance reform proposal, local school officials are left with unanswered questions.

One item that has drawn the most skepticism from local administrators is the fact that the current formula has been cut due to the decline in the economy, yet Brownback is introducing a new formula that would cost an additional $45.1 million.

"My thought is that if they can't fund the current formula that we have ... how are they going to fund this?" USD 234 Business Manager Tiffany Forester said Thursday.

USD 235 Superintendent Randy Rockhold said the information is so new to him that he has not been able to determine where the figures in the plan have come from. He said in an email to The Tribune that the plan appears "very vague" and that the key to any plan is in the details.

"There's just a lot of things within the plan that I don't fully understand yet, like how they come up with the figures," Rockhold said in a phone interview. "There's a lot of uncertainty still."

Currently, the amount of funding a school receives is based on the district's enrollment multiplied by $3,780, the state's base state aid per pupil. Enrollment numbers are manipulated based on the number of students that fall into different weighted groups such as at-risk and bilingual.

The proposed reform, which is set to begin in the 2013-14 school year, would do away with the weighted enrollment and increase the base state aid to $4,492 per pupil. Additionally, every kindergarten student would count as a full-time student, whereas they are currently counted as half-time students.

Forester said from what she understands, with the weighted funds being eliminated that money will no longer be designated for each group. Instead, it will go into the general fund to be used however the school sees fit, she said.

Rockhold said one of the areas that leaves him the most uneasy is that special and vocational education students are left out of the plan.

"The plan is very incomplete ... we're always going to have students that have special needs, and we need to have a plan to provide for them," he said.

Under Brownback's plan, the state would maintain its 20 mill property tax levy, but would use a new formula to ensure that a higher portion of the money is distributed to districts that fall the farthest below the state's average in property wealth per pupil, according to an Associated Press report.

With the reform, there are several other aspects dealing with property tax that remain unclear. Forester said she participated in a conference call Wednesday with Dale Dennis, deputy commissioner of fiscal and administrative services for the Kansas State Department of Education, which provided few answers.

Rockhold also met with Dennis Thursday and had a similar experience. He said KSDE does not have answers to give just yet because they were also given the information for the first time on Wednesday.

Forester said she was informed that the proposal, if it goes through as is, would suffer the same cuts as the current formula should the economy continue to decline.

"I just don't see the justification in it if in three years we are going to end up in the same position we're at now," she said. "It doesn't do any good to spend time and money to figure something like this out if they're not going to be able to fund it."

Rockhold said he still believes in the current formula, which is not adequately funded. He said Brownback's proposal would not provide equal funding and added while USD 235 would fare well in the first year, other schools may not receive any additional funding.

"I do not understand why they just don't put that money into the system that has stood the test of the course," he said.

Rockhold added in an email, "I would prefer to see the current formula which has already been proven to be equitable and would be adequate if fully funded."

"If the current formula were funded, there would be adequate revenue and the revenue would be equitable. Adequacy and equity is the key to ensuring individual student needs are met."

According to Rockhold, the upcoming session of the Kansas Legislature will be "key in determining what will eventually be adopted."

Forester said she was told during her conference call with Dennis to contact her state legislators to provide input on the plan.