Unimaginable gas bills in cold snap ruined Kansas schools’ budgets. Where is the AG?

Last February, our state was one of the many hit hard by the cold snap that kept temperatures well below freezing for several days. What came as a shock to many Kansas families, small businesses and school districts was that we were hit with unimaginable gas bills just for trying to keep the heat on.

During the crisis, I served as the 4th District representative for the Shawnee Mission School District. The district had budgeted $600,000 for the entire year of natural gas bills, but for the month of February alone, our bill was a whopping $1.6 million. This was far above anything we had ever seen before, and well beyond what we had reasonably budgeted. And the kicker is that it only covered about a week’s worth of gas to heat our buildings during the cold snap.

At Shawnee Mission, we were fortunate. We’re large enough and had budgeted carefully enough that this astronomical bill didn’t wipe out our entire emergency fund, and we were able to hire a law firm to help us fight to reduce our bill. But other districts don’t have that same luxury, and don’t have the funds stored away for this kind of emergency. Take Auburn-Washburn, for example. That Topeka district received a gas bill of $45,000 — 800% higher than the $5,000 per month they typically pay. Or Newton Public Schools, which received a bill for nearly $200,000 for last February alone — six times the normal amount.

That’s why it’s been so disappointing to see no action in over a year from the state attorney general’s office. As our AG, Derek Schmidt is supposed to oversee the investigation into what caused these huge spikes, and prevent them from happening again. While school districts such as Shawnee Mission were wondering whether they can adequately budget for future needs, we needed him to be our advocate. We cannot live in fear that a week’s worth of bad weather and freezing temperatures could undo all of our careful budgeting and force us to make painful cuts to resources our students desperately need.

What many may not know is that paying for utilities comes from the same operating funds that pay for the things our students need, such as learning materials, hiring teachers and support staff, and other everyday educational needs. Paying off huge, unforeseen utility bills takes money directly from student learning. It’s money that is desperately needed for hiring new staff — the thing that makes the biggest difference in our children receiving the high-quality education they all deserve.

For a decade, Kansas public schools were not able to set our budgets until a month before school started. The 2019 Gannon v. Kansas school finance agreement gave us some much-needed predictability and reliability, allowing us to make budget projections and plan ahead to find the best ways to meet the educational needs of our students. Then, not even two years later, school districts across the state were left scrambling to pay unprecedented gas bills. No one could have prepared for something like this, even with the best budgeting practices in place.

Strong public schools make for a strong Kansas. The attorney general must fight to make sure we aren’t hit with utility bills that some districts are simply unable to pay.