The Kansas Senate’s three-year, $466 million school funding plan, approved Thursday, is a reasonable response to the Kansas Supreme Court’s order to suitably finance public education. Now, lawmakers need to responsibly reconcile the Sentate bill with the $633 million House plan — not cut the Senate bill by $65 million, as a House committee did Saturday. Once a new finance plan is passed and signed, it then will be up to the high court to decide if it is acceptable (can you really phase in a constitutional requirement?) or if, heaven help us, there will have to be another special session.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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10 Comments
One thing we could do is be more forthright about the sizes of these bills. News reports such as the one above only cite the amount of increased spending, and it sounds like that’s all we’re spending. For the record, total spending on education in Kansas, considering all sources, in 2004-2005, according to the Kansas Department of Education, was $4,289,414,543.
Then, take a look at what we get for this spending. Consider how the education establishment, aided by editorials such as the one above, urged on by demands to “do their job” and “save the children,” demands more and more resources, yet they will not open themselves to market competition and let parents decide how and where to spend education tax dollars.
This focus on the court vs. legislature scuffle distracts our attention from the real problems that plague public education today. The increased spending lets the education establishment and Eagle editorial writers claim a victory for the children, when the sad fact is that the reform that is desperately needed is put off for another few years.
If you’re talking the ability to select what public school, I have no problem with that. If you’re talking also private, there are some other issues. Can we, the private schools, still be 100% selective on whom we admit? Can we still terminate your contract with us for poor academic performance? Do we have to provide special services? Oh, and by the way, if the voucher is for, say $4000-5000 dollars, you’re still anywhere from a few to several thousand dollars short of our annual tuition.
In Wichita, which is very low cost of private education compared to many locales nationally, here is what your are looking at approximately for tuition (this doesn’t include various fees for athletics and activities, textbooks, lunch, etc. necessarily either):
Collegiate: $10,000 - 11,000Independent: $6,000 - 8,000Trinity: $8,000
These three are more accurate indicators because they have to operate independently, unlike the Catholic schools which are somewhat subsidized through the Diocese, if by nothing else than shared facilities.
Oh, and also by the way, teachers at these schools tend to NOT be paid as well as public schools or have as good of a benefits package. The teachers that are willing to stay under that circumstance often have a spouse with a well-paying job. The ones that don’t often end up returning to the public schools where salaries, benefits, and such are better.
If you want small class sizes, relatively current textbooks, resources, and technologies, and high enough pay to attract the best people to your staff, it isn’t going to come cheaply. So if you have a better idea offer it, please.
You want to cut the number of administrators? Then ask the legislature to stop demanding so many things that require endless amounts of data and paperwork. Ask the parents to be parents so the school doesn’t have to be the parent.
Oh, and you could dump every administrator in a district, but doing so would only save you about 4-5% of your total cost. If you want to really save money your only real option is to increase class sizes, thus reducing the number of teachers necessary. In most schools systems, public or private, the salaries and benefits of the faculty and staff usually represent 70-80% of your total budget.
Well, Jeff, private schools would need wide latitude in running their operations. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be private schools, would they? They would absolutely need to be selective in who they admit. When students misbehave, they need to be expelled. And yes, if the voucher amount was for the same amount that the public schools spend on special needs students, there will certainly be schools that will take these students and provide the services they need.
I never advocated smaller class sizes, current textbooks and technology, high salaries, and low administrator count. Those things may or may not lead to better educational outcomes. I simply want to unleash market forces of competition and less burdensome government regulation so that schools – not just the three you mentioned plus the church schools – would be free to provide education that really works. Or sometimes it might not work. But with parents empowered to make choices, schools that don’t work will either improve or go out of business. Our current public school system doesn’t provide such a powerful motivating factor.
Look at the motivating factors in place. Our public schools, by almost any measure you can find, are doing a poor job. Yet we are rewarding them with a huge increase in inputs. Why should they be motivated to improve, when for the next several years, they are guaranteed large increases in inputs? Especially since the current political climate doesn’t seem conducive to opening opportunities for competition.
Even if vouchers don’t pay for the entire cost of a school that parents want to send their children to, what’s wrong with parents having a little at stake, a little skin in the game? One of the complaints we often hear is the lack of parental involvement; that parents don’t care. With some of their own money at stake, that might be a motivating factor, don ‘t you think?
KCL says:
“… private schools would need wide latitude in running their operations. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be private schools, would they? They would absolutely need to be selective in who they admit. When students misbehave, they need to be expelled.”
And then he says:
“Our public schools, by almost any measure you can find, are doing a poor job.”
Well gee, do ya think there might be a correlation here? Private schools do not play by the same rules, they cherry pick their students, yet you want to judge public schools by private standards? Can you say “rigged game”?
I also just love this line of reasoning. Private schools are better. They spend MORE MONEY per student than public. But giving public schools more money wont give kids a better education?
Why cant the private schools, with I am assuming fewer administrators, do the same job for the same amount of money no matter WHERE the funds originate?
What’s good for the goose is not good for the gander?
And private schools are better because they dont have to do all the things public do or take all the people public do… so let’s essentially let them continue to operate on a non-level playing field AND give them tax dollars? And tout their better results with more dollars per student?
Sorry, but level the playing field first and then we will talk about comparing results. Otherwise, it’s apples and oranges.
I have no interest in a special tax subsidy for religious education that is not open to all under the same standards as public education. Could this be why under republican leadership our budgets and government spending would shame any liberal?
KCL, you did a better job of illustrating the real intent of the voucher crowd than I could have EVER done. Subsidize my kid’s tuition with public money so I can cherry pick the private schools with tax dollars.
And public school students? Well let them eat cake as long as MY kid’s religious education is subsidized by tax dollars.
And make no mistake, this is about religious education. IF the fundies cant control the public schools and have their religion taught as science, they will pick up their toys AND YOUR TAX DOLLARS and leave the sand box.
And this would benefit the state how? I see how it benefits YOUR kids, but what about all the others?
Or is it just their fault for being born into their families and not yours?
Jesus wept.
People should simply do what my wife and I have done; homeschool your kinder! You will be doing God’s work and your kinder will thank you.
Viva La Revolucion Blanco!!!
Thanks, KFG. I was going to issue my own rant last night, but it was already after 1:00. . .
I love these types who want to privatize education with public tax dollars. It’s the worst of both worlds: public expenditure with NO accountabilty! How on Earth is THAT “laissez-faire”?
And the 5-4 Supreme Court decision didn’t exactly give you carte blanche, KCL (sorry, no link: too busy these days!). Keep that in mind.
In the meantime, the public schools are ruined, and SOME people couldn’t be happier. . .
Ian, if I had kids, I would home school them too. Except for math…I would need a little help on that subject!!!
ksfarmgrrl, I’m surprised. I though I could count you as an ally in my quest to restore our liberties.
With parents empowered by voucher money, there would certainly be new private schools opening, don’t you think? It’s likely that some of these would be religious schools. It’s likely, then, that some parents who are currently paying tuition to religious schools would then be able to pay that tuition with voucher dollars.
My question is: what’s wrong with that? Wouldn’t there also be many new private secular schools opening? If there is a demand by parents for a certain type of school, I’m sure that demand would be met.
Some people have an objection to government money going to religion. I can understand how they feel that way. I’m sure you can understand that many other people have an objection to government money sustaining a failing educational system. Personally, I don’t really care about what type of schools parents choose, as long as they are satisfied with the outcomes.
I am not able to understand your argument about spending per student. Kansas spends around $10,000 per student, that amount about to increase quite a bit. The writer “Jeff” above cited tuitions ranging from $6,000 to $11,000 for some private schools, and those figures agree with my research. So who is spending more money?
By the way, many private schools — charter schools, too — take all comers. In cities like Minneapolis, where there is a long tradition of school choice, it is mostly poor, minority families that make use of voucher programs and charter schools. That’s because middle class families have more options. They can move to where they believe the public schools are better, or they can afford to pay private or religious school tuition. Why do we want to deny poor people the same opportunities for a better education?
It is true that the private schools we have in Wichita, as in most towns, are either religious or — and I hesitate to use this word — elite. But that’s what we have today. If parents were empowered with voucher money the demand for private education would increase, and I believe we would quickly see many private schools of many varieties opening. I think we would be astounded by the diversity in educational opportunities we would have. If some people chose schools with a mission that you don’t agree with, aren’t you willing to allow them that liberty?
I’m sure there will always be some remnant of our public schools available for those who want that.
I agree with Ian on home-schooling. We have to move beyond “standardized education”. Education standardization is a product of a mass-factory production paradigm. But humans are NOT factory products. Unless we stupidly turn them into such, which is to say deny them their full potential as human beings.
Ian and I disagree on certain things. But we agree on certain other things. That’s one of the amazing things about America. I grew up with Mexicans, and so learned that most of them had more good qualities than bad. I didn’t have any Mexican friends though, except when I was really young.
My sister married a Mexican-American. He’s a good provider, husband and father. He makes about $70,000/year as does she. They’re both Republicans. They’ve been to Europe more times than I have. We drive American-built Toyotas, they drive Fords (he an F-250, she an Expedition). Our mother loves her half-latino grandchildren.I married a blue-eyed blond. We made different choices. So, I’m going to denounce my sister and her family. Not!
On The Independent School, I can tell you for a fact that they take kids with learning disabilities like ADD and dyslexia. Yet TIS whupped Collegiate’s behind in this year’s Duke University 7th grade talent search, 13 to 5 commended students. I know for a fact that at least one of these kids has an educational psychologist, and physician-documented learning disability. Plus TIS won a U.S. Department of Education “Blue Ribbon School” award.