Halt the rush toward chaos in Kansas school funding

Bad things happen when the Kansas Legislature moves too quickly. The 2012 bill that resulted in unsustainable income tax cuts was in some ways a rush job. Enough said.

But now lawmakers are proceeding at a breakneck pace on a plan to dismantle the state’s school funding formula. Gov. Sam Brownback and his Republican allies want to replace the existing blueprint with a temporary measure that for two years would give school districts a lump sum to work with. Lawmakers would use the time to devise a new, permanent formula.

Supporters of the bill couch it as a move toward simplicity. In reality, it is a way to fund schools on the cheap for two years while lawmakers attempt to make that situation permanent.

While the overall amount of funding proposed in the bill looks like an increase, much of it would go into pension payments. Many schools, especially those with high-need student populations, would see a decrease in funding for day-to-day expenses.

The current finance formula represents an intricate effort to equalize funding among the state’s diverse collection of school districts. Any crisis in school financing lies not so much with the formula, but in the Legislature’s failure to adequately fund it.

The new plan contains no safeguards against further cuts. It sets a dangerous precedent by shifting pension responsibilities from the state to school districts.

Ominously, as they prepare to upend the existing formula, lawmakers have given no indication of what they will do later.

Legislature leaders are using procedural tactics to speed passage of the bill. It could be on its way to Brownback as early as this week unless wiser lawmakers take a stand.

This story was originally published March 11, 2015 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Halt the rush toward chaos in Kansas school funding."