Legislative leaders unveil plan to fund Kansas schools with block grants

Taking the baton from Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, lawmakers outlined plans Thursday for funding schools with block grants.

The legislation from leading conservative lawmakers marks a key step toward overhauling how education is bankrolled in Kansas.

Although the plan brings with it the promise of more than $300 million in new money for schools — much of it for retirement — legislators left unclear how they would eventually pay for it.

First put forward by Brownback in January, the block grants are intended to act as a stopgap for two years while lawmakers rewrite a school formula some have criticized as overly complicated and fiscally uncertain.

Conservative lawmakers believe the existing formula is faulty because it’s led to unanticipated spending increases — hikes that they would stop with the block grant proposal.

“This is not the new formula, but it does create an environment of stability, predictability and certainty,” said state Sen. Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican and chairman of the budget-writing Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Preliminary data showed that the interim funding plan would bump total state spending for public schools to more than $4.2 billion for the 2016-17 school year. That’s roughly $333 million, or nearly 9 percent, more than what was allocated in 2013-14. However, those numbers were still being refined late Thursday.

School districts would receive the same amount they received for the 2014-15 school year before Brownback announced mid-year budget cuts last month.

The measure not only restores the Brownback cuts; it also includes money for districts that run into “extraordinary needs,” such as growing student population and changing demographics.

Precise details of how the measure would affect specific school districts were not available Thursday. The 145-page bill wasn’t formally introduced in the House and the Senate until just before 5 p.m.

Blue Valley Superintendent Tom Trigg said he saw some positive aspects, including restoration of the $28 million in cuts that Brownback announced last month.

Shawnee Mission Superintendent Jim Hinson gave the plan conditional support, acknowledging that there were still questions that need to be answered.

“The block grant funding bill keeps the funding the same, we think,” Hinson said. “In light of the state’s current financial situation, this is probably the best-case scenario.”

Meanwhile, Democratic legislators lashed out at the bill, saying the new money touted by Republican leadership already goes toward retirement and complying with a state Supreme Court ruling that ordered more school funding last year.

“Their proposal does not do what they claim it’s going to do,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka. “It does not allocate $300 million in new money, nor does it put more money into the classroom.”

And some school officials still wondered how the new spending might be funded.

Kansas is facing a nearly $600 million budget deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1. That comes after the Legislature passed deep income tax cuts in 2012 and again in 2013 at Brownback’s urging.

Lawmakers have been studying options for raising taxes, including higher levies on cigarettes and alcohol. They also considered changing the way taxes are assessed on farmland, gasoline and sales and passive income, which includes rent and royalties.

The Legislature might not know until May whether a tax increase is needed, depending on how deep the state budget can be cut and what state revenues look like this spring.

“It’s positive that we have the Republican leadership saying they think they can identify more resources for schools,” said Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards.

“How’s that going to happen?” he asked. “At this point, we don’t have a revenue plan even close to being out of any committee yet.”

Masterson said he is trying to test how far the Legislature is willing to go to spend money on education. How it’s paid for is still an unknown, Masterson acknowledged.

Republican Rep. Ron Ryckman Jr. of Olathe, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, conceded as much.

“This is, obviously,” he said, “one half of the balance sheet.”

This story was originally published March 5, 2015 at 1:13 PM with the headline "Legislative leaders unveil plan to fund Kansas schools with block grants."