Ignore? Report Says Education Underfunded

Wichita Eagle
A report by the 2010 Commission on education reached the same conclusion as other Legislature-authorized studies and a Kansas Supreme Court ruling: The state is underfunding K-12 education.
So how will lawmakers respond to the report? If history is any guide, many will dismiss and ignore it.
And then call for more tax cuts.
The Legislature created the 2010 Commission in 2005 after the state lost the school-funding lawsuit and agreed to increase funding to schools. The commission, which is composed of legislators and nonlegislators, was assigned to monitor and evaluate school finance, review ways to make the education system more efficient and effective, and make recommendations to guide the Legislature in meeting its constitutional duty to suitably finance education.
Its new report to the Legislature concluded: "The commission believes we cannot sacrifice a generation of Kansas students because the economy is weak. It is time for the Legislature to take steps to ensure that the revenue and funding policies of the Legislature allow every Kansas student to achieve his or her full potential."
To do that, the commission recommended that the Legislature reverse some previous tax cuts, increase the state school property-tax rate to its previous level (lawmakers reduced it from 35 to 20 mills during the stock-market boom in the 1990s), or increase the statewide sales tax.
"In prosperous times, the Legislature has been eager to reduce revenues," the report said. "Now, in these difficult times, the Legislature must face the fact that it needs to replace some of that revenue."
But the Legislature doesn't like to face facts — at least when it comes to school funding.
It authorized a 2001 study on the cost of a suitable education. But as 2010 Commission chairwoman Rochelle Chronister noted, many lawmakers "immediately ignored the findings because they didn't want to deal with the potential costs."
It took a lawsuit from school districts, a Kansas Supreme Court order and a special session of the Legislature to force lawmakers to act. But even then they didn't provide a funding stream to pay for the increased spending — which is one reason the state is facing a large budget shortfall.
And now, much of that funding increase has been cut and more cuts are possible.
Some lawmakers likely will latch onto a "minority report" issued by one member of the 2010 Commission. It disparaged the commission's recommendations as "little different from those of the paid education lobby" and recommended consolidating small school districts, eliminating teacher tenure and authorizing tax credits for more school choice.
Districts should complete efficiency audits, as Derby recently did, and some districts should consolidate schools or administrative functions. But it's unlikely that lawmakers will come up with realistic plans to significantly lower education costs.
Instead, many likely will do what they've usually done, whether times were good or bad: Close their eyes, plug their ears, and hope the Supreme Court won't force them to follow the findings of their own reports.
— For the editorial board, Phillip Brownlee