University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, February 21, 1973
7
Equalizing Education Statehouse Battle Starts on 2 Plans To End School Support Inequality
Either financing plan will solve some problems for some districts and create new problems for others. In all solutions and problems the plans will mean for eight Kansas school districts.
MULLINVILLE
Mullinville has one of the highest budgets per pupil in the state because it has one of the lowest numbers of students. A high assessed valuation per pupil, however, eases the burden of this on the district by keeping the tax rate low.
R. W. Gallion, superintendent of the Mullivune District, said last week that he thought the people in the district would be "real happy" with the committee bill. It would not require any local tax money to be spent outside the district. If the committee plan called for pure power equalizing, the money would go to poor districts.
Gallion said he did not like the governor's proposal because of the 8-milliliter state tax levy. This would collect about $210,000 in Mullinville, he said, and return only $101,000 under the grandfather clause. This would decrease to $65,500 after five years.
He said he thought the taxpayers would be willing to fund the maximum budget. Otherwise, he said, the district would have nothing to lose and there was nothing in the budget that could be cut.
ROLLA
The taxpayers will complain, he said, but they will except the new tax rate and fund the program.
There is some doubt as to whether the people in Rolla will fund a maximum budget, according to Niel Hays, superintendent. To fund the maximum budget, the taxpayers would have to pay 14.40 mills under the committee plan or 11.58 under the governor's. They now pay 5.78 mills. A mill is $1 per 100 of assessed valuation.
If the budget had to be cut, he said, it would probably be cut a little in several areas. He suggested combining some elementary grades, cutting back on extracurricular transportation and cutting supplies.
ULYSSES
In Ulysses, Superintendent Murri Durr call back. He said he thought the district call back. He said he thought the district call back.
would be willing to pay the increased mill to support education at its present level.
SHAWNEE MISSION
School officials in Shawnee Mission are not as worried about the tax rate as they are about the size of their maximum budget. The committee plan would lower their tax rate by 16 mills; the governor's plan, by 6 mills.
E. V. Richley, director of revenue, said he did not favor either bill in its present form. He said he preferred the committee bill but said an increase in Social Security tax would neutralize some of the 5-percent budget increase allowed under the plan.
He said the governor's plan had been arbitrarily derived
"I don't think he made any attempt to educate educational opportunities," he
The committee was expected to amend the bill so that an increase in Social Security tax will not affect the remainder of the school budget.
The Shawne Mission budget per pupil is not high, but the number of pupils allows them to provide high quality instruction with this expenditure.
Richley said that the district could support its present programs with a 5-per-cent budget increase but that there "certainly wouldn't be any increases."
The district, which has a large amount of income compared to property, would favor a statewide property tax as suggested in the governor's bill.
WICHITA
"We'll be better off by either proposal,"
SOURCES OF TARLE
Col. B. K. Isaac State Department of Education commissioned the $10 million Federal School Finance Plan, that to be administered of school financial aid.
Cet. 4. Kansas State Department of Education commissioned the following recommendations to the 1977 Legislature, "mailed to the governor" and "to the secretary."
Col. 8. Docking printout Col. 5.
Col. 5. Docking printout Col. 9.
Cat. 7. Kansas State Department of Education comm-
mission on the Governor's Special and Special Committee
under the Government and Special Committee Plan in
the State of Kansas.
Col. 4. Proposed mill levies印刷 Col. 22.
Col. 5. Proposed mill levies印刷 Col. 13.
Col. 10. Docking printout Col. 18.
Col. 11. Docking's printout Col. 17 divided by 2.
Effects on Individuals Prove Hard to Gauge
Actually, it would be hard to tell a rich school district from a poor one by casually skimming through the news.
People in the Statehouse have been talking about the "poor kids in Galena" as if they expected to find them writing with charcoal on the back of spades as they added an accent to their words and the children found along the railroad tracks during recess.
Johnson County District Court in its
A study in the early 1960s by J. Alan Thomas appeared to show a high correlation between school district expenditures and achievement test scores, and a more comprehensive study by James S. Coleman found a much smaller correlation between expenditures and achievement test scores. Very few new research studies in Sociological Abstracts in recent years.
School...
(Continued from page 1)
The governor's plan does not come close to any of the methods mentioned in the article cited by the court. It collects money and teaches students how to count a number of pupils and teachers. An adjustment is made so that rich districts get less money per student and teacher than the poor.
His formula would cut off state aid completely to some of the richer districts, but it could be used under which state aid could be cut to only 90 per cent of last year's level. It would then go down by 10 per cent a year until it reached 60 per cent of last year's level, where it would stay.
No one is certain whether either plan would pass the court test, but most people involved think the committee plan is the unlikely of the two to gain court approval.
ruling last year did not attempt to determine whether there was substantial difference in educational opportunity; it merely ruled that spending different amounts of money on students was inequality enough.
A class of 100 students can list, class and each learn as much as their instructor. But in some subjects the exclusion principle does apply. A student can learn a lot more if his art teacher gives him three minutes of mutual attention each day instead of one minute.
In some subjects, the quality of a student's education depends heavily on the amount of individual attention the teacher can give him. This is not true in all cases.
The number of certified employees per student varies substantially in Kansas. Certified employees are administrators, teachers and counselors. Some schools have more than 24 students per certified employee, and some have as many as 24 students per certified employee.
Schools offer jobs to the best teachers first and work down their list until they have all of their vacant positions filled. It is not uncommon for a rich school district to offer a beginning salary of nearly $1,000 more than a poorer district, with beginning salaries ranging from $750 to $1,000 difference is significant. This allows the richer school districts to do their hiring first and leave the other districts to take what is left.
The quality of the teacher is also important to the student's education. There are some good teachers and some bad teachers in all schools, but the present system of school financing tends to concur with the good teachers in the richer schools.
STORES AND TABLE
By ERIC KRAMER
SALLY CARLSON
The governor's plan would raise property taxes slightly in Wichita, and the committee plan would lower them by more than one percent. The budget idle that is the concern in Wichita.
said Bob Nispel, assistant budget director in Wichita.
The present tax lid has frozen the mill
wall and made new construction the
only source of energy.
The committee bill would allow a 5-percent per year increase in the budget and Docking's bill allows a 4-percent increase the first year. Nisipel said the district was planning a 2-percent increase for next year under the tax lid.
construction raises the assessed valuation so that the same mill levy brings in more
Assessed valuation has not risen rapidly in Wichita recently and, Nispel said, "For three years we have predicted that it would last year we could fund a 100-percent budget."
In Lawrence, the main concern is with the budget idle. Kenneth Fisher, budget director, oversees all department budgets.
Teachers meet in Spring Hill to discuss the firing of a fellow teacher and to discuss wages. The poorer school districts usually cannot offer a salary that competes for teachers with the richer districts.
He said the district had been cutting into supplies and equipment to pay teacher
1. District Name Number Plan
   2. Budget Per Papel 754
   3. General Bud. Per Papel 754
   4. Adjusted Valuation Per Papel 754
   5. Local MILY Per Papel 1971
   6. Max. Budget 724 Max. Budget 724 Max. Budget
   7. Local Neeson for Max. Bed.
   8. Proposed State Ad G.F. Clause 724-724
   9. Gov. Plan G.F. Clause 724-724
   10. Minimum G.F. Clause 724-724
   11. Reached 724-724
LAWRENCE
Kunsan Staff Photo by DAN LAUING
Comm Mullinville Dist 424 168.5
Docking $1,996.97 $2,204.87 $99,003 13.88 $377,490 21.15 0
Comm Rolla Dist 217 200 $1,664.50 $1,634.33 $101,431 5.75 $35,402 14.40 0
Docking $1,634.33 $1,731.08 $1,918.91 $391,311 11.58 $126,000 0
Comm Ulysses Dist 214 1666.5 $1,098.11 $1,119.83 $1,958,294 20.18 0
Docking $1,119.83 $1,142.03 $2,107,452 13.69 $839,000 $304,854 $466,518
Comm Shawnee Mission Dist 512 42,515.8 $800.62 $861.87 $37,078,619 17.34 $18,290,000 Grandfather Clause Does Not Apply
Docking $832.64 $14,766 33.73 $39,350,432 27.49 $20,053,000
Comm Wichigan Dist 259 53,568.5 $863.57 $908.18 $48,504,126 18.62 $26,765,000 Grandfather Clause Does Not Apply
Docking $898.11 $12,276 30.66 $32,547,209 31.70 $25,110,000
Comm Lawrence Dist 497 7404 $736.23 $829.38 $6,285,925 16.11 $2,550,000 Grandfather Clause Does Not Apply
Docking $765.67 $19,481 20.05 $6,627,563 21.21 $3,288,000
Comm Galena Dist 499 990 $608.24 $5,384 38.63 $615,148 9.32 $499,000 Grandfather Clause Does Not Apply
Docking $537.19 $5,384 38.63 $650,970 24.79 $513,000
Comm Valley Center Dist 262 1642 $767.55 $9,125 31.18 $1,295,711 14.42 $892,000 Grandfather Clause Does Not Apply
Docking $713.85 $9,125 31.18 $1,314,734 20.25 $928,000
Eight Representative Districts
EXPANATION OF TABLE: Cah. 1.1. This identification sheds the plan. The figures for the governor's powers are based on the United States Commission, the figures for the government's powers are on the United States and unidentified Canadian figures. Table 1.2 shows the total powers of the governor.
C. 3. The amount of money budgeted by the school district for the 79-82 year school years according to the courts. Accounts are large and vary in size and amount according to the courts. Estimates are larger than actual amounts received from the courts and may be larger based on available information.
C.6. The assessed valuation of the district divided by the number of grossly assessed valuation has been adjusted to 30 per cent of actual value of property.
C.8. The district's 1979 tax rate in dollars per thousand assessed valuation. The taxes were assessed when the property was assessed at 30 per cent of value. These rates have
the state and to the 39-year-old in lieu of being employed for that time.
This behemoth money paid from state and local funds. When the governor makes an annual budget figure in 160 per cent of last year's, he will provide that same amount in the general budget figure.
budget or 14 per cent of the average for schools she it. It is no lower than 14 per cent of her year's budget or 14 per cent of the average for the school'sake, which ever lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower. It is lower.
The local mill required to support the maximum budget. This does not include the local area necessary of the monthly necessary to pay the state's tax and other necessary costs. The local area proposed by the board was not necessary to support the municipality but proposed a per cent income tax. Nine of these taxes are included in the municipality.
Cell 9: The aid the state would give the school district if it adopted the maximum budget.
**Cis. 19. The Ducking fading formula allows a grandmother clause. The clause allows a duck to die while the grandfather clause allows a grandchild to die.**
**Cis. 20. The paradox of the indirect object and the grounded clause in case 19-70.**
**Cis. 21. The paradox of the indirect object and the grounded clause in case 19-70.**
The governor's bill would raise the local property tax about one mill, and the committee bill would lower it about four mills. He would also fund the education fund any new programs under either plan. He said bids on gasoline went up 20 per cent this year; paper went up 8 per cent, and the teachers needed a cost of living raise. He would take care of the additional money.
cent increase allowed in the committee bill if Social Security tax increases were not audited.
GALENA
The "poor kids in Galena" have been the subject of much conversation in Topeka lately. The property valuation per student in Galena is extremely low. This means that the taxpayers pay a high tax rate and the budget, per pupil is still small.
F. K. Pontious, the superintendent in Galena, said the district would be able to expand vocational education under either of the new plans. He said he also hoped to add some teachers to get class size below 30 in all classes.
when asked how much the financial situation in Galena hurt the students, he said, "Not to the extent some might imagine."
He said the district paid low salaries and was unable to compete for good teachers.
He said the physical plant was in good condition, but the district needed more classrooms. He said he was afraid that the remedial education program would have to be cut off. He said he was afraid that the federal funds for such programs might be dropped and that the district would not be able to reduce the federal funds with local money.
was unable to compete for good teachers. The court decision was the "best news we could have until they pass something to carry that out," he said.
VALLEY CENTER
"We can't go anywhere but up," Odes Sapp, Valley Center school superintendent, said. "We have been in a state of shock for the last five years that able to run a school ademately."
He said the district would use its new state aid to get the salaries of its certified and noncertified employees up to the level of other schools its size. He said the school had been trying to start office practice courses, but funding held had the program back. He said the district would need three or four more teachers next year.
Gov., Republicans Clash on Method
Kansan Staff Photo by ED LALLO
Docking Plan
The governor's plan is designed to collect money into the state treasury and give it back to the districts with a formula that considers the number of students, the number of teachers and the assessed valuation per student of the district.
The money would come from $106.6 million now given in state school aid, $15.9 million now used for the state school employees retirement fund, $86.3 million raised by an 8-mil statewide levy and $4.00 million revenue from the state general fund.
Kathy Kestner, a first grade teacher at Powhattan demonstrates a learning device that plays a record to ask students questions. The student is shown three answers on the screen. If he pushes the button below the right answer the record goes on to the next question. If he pushes the wrong button the record repeats.
The districts would have to provide $15.9 million to pay for the employee退休 fund. Public finance experts say this shift from a state expenditure to a local expenditure would neutralize some of the effects of the equalizing program.
The plan then takes this money and divides it into 60 and 40 per cent shares. The 40 per cent share is divided by the number of students, the distribution share, by the number of students. This results in an aid per student and an aid per teacher amount. The districts multiply the numbers of students and teachers by these figures to arrive at their unadjusted state.
This unadjusted state aid figure is multiplied by an equalizing index so that the effect on the value of the index, find the index, the formula uses the average assessed valuation per pupil in the state. Districts that have the average assessed valuation per student are given an index of 0.81.
If the districts assessed valuation per student is below the average by $1,0000, the index is increased by .01. If it is $20,000 below the average, the index is increased by .02. The opposite is also true. If the districts assessed valuation per pupil is above the average, the index is decreased. If the index reaches zero, the process stops.
Many consider this formula to be arbitrary. Marvin Harder, the governor's education expert, defended the plan recently by saying that it achieved the amount of equalization the governor wanted.
This index is multiplied by the amount allotted for the district's students and teachers and federal aid is subtracted to get the amount of state aid to be given.
The governor's bill has a rather complicated budget lid. The maximum budget is the least of the last year's budget plus a percentage increase of twice the consumer price index, last year's average budget gap for school districts in its state and for other regions once the consumer price index or 110 per cent of last year's budget.
A grandfather clause prevents a school district from losing more than 10 per cent of pupils.
The aid will be gradually reduced to 50
and will resume at five years and
will remain at this level.
In any event, the budget can be increased by the percentage of the consumer price index.
Docking defines size categories as under
800 students, 800 to 1,899 students and 1,900 or more students. The two largest categories can be changed by the State Board of Education after the first year.
If the voters in the district approve a
budget increase, the budget can be increased to any level so long as the budget per pupil figure does not pass the highest pupil figure in the school's size category;
Small Rural Schools Complicate Financing
One factor that complicates the financing of schools in Kansas is the small, inefficient size of some of the schools and school districts.
There is a certain amount of fixed overhead no matter how many students the educational factory is clawing out. This brings the cost per unit of output, or student, up.
When most of the school districts in Kansas were formed, agriculture required much more manual labor than it does now. Mechanization has ended the need for much of the labor, so many of the workers and their families have moved away from the farms, leaving school districts with very few students.
A simple solution would be to close some of the schools and form larger school districts, but this solution would meet with much local opposition.
A school is a matter of civic pride for a small community. Kansas City has the Chiefs, and Mullinville has its school. And any attempt to close the school would meet with more opposition than a plan to move the Chiefs to Omaha.
In the early days, the people from several sections of land would join together and form a school district. One teacher, who often lived in the district president's house,
taught all of the grades offered at the school in one room.
Then a wave of school consolidation swept across the country. Unified school districts were formed and larger schools were built in the towns. Many of the rural schools were
But some of these rural schools still remain as headaches to administrators of the unified districts. Rolla has two of these districts. One school has 13 students; the other
The school boards of the unified districts are powerless to close the rural schools. The schools cannot be closed without the approval of the voters of the old rural school district, because these people are unwilling to give up their town and send their children into town.
Many of the unified school districts themselves are below an efficient size.
The issue is so important to the people involved that the legislature, through the years, has devoted more than a third of its legislation or education to consolidation.
One bill introduced in the Senate this session even seeks to limit the ability of an act of God to close a school. The bill would also mandate damaged school or hold an election if the cost of repairing it would be less than half of building a similar facility.
Committee Plan
The committee bill is designed to equalize
the committee power powers the school
district.
The wealth of the district is multiplies by a local effort index to determine the local share of the budget. The local share along with the total budget determines the total budget to determine state aid.
The plan is designed, basically, so that any district willing to pay a 1/4-percent income tax and a 15-mil property tax will be able to spend the statewide average budget per pupil for school districts its size. If the district is willing to pay less than 15 percent, the pupil will be higher than average and if the district pays less the budget per pupil will be smaller.
The committee has amended the bill so that a district can raise all of its share through a property tax. An optional 50 per cent share is charged to the regulatory rate of 1/4 per cent income tax.
The district's wealth is found by adding the adjusted valuation of property in the district to the taxable income that is earned in the district. Adding these figures at a one-to-one ratio is an arbitrary decision that the committee reached because it was equitable, Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Iowa, president of the Senate, said recently.
This district wealth figure is multiplied by a district effort index. The effort index is set at 1½ per cent for schools whose average budget per pupil equals the statewide average budget per pupil for districts its size. The index is adjusted up or down proportionately if the district's budget per pupil is above or below the statewide average.
This index is multiplied by the district wealth to determine the local share of the school budget. The local share and federal share are added to obtain the total budget to determine the state's share.
The committee would pay the state share with $106.6 million presently used for state education aid and $99 million that it says can be taken from the state general fund without raising taxes or cutting existing programs.
The committee would also transfer the cost of vocational and special education from the districts to the state. Public finance experts say this would enhance the equalization of education resources necessary for it is available in the state general fund, the committee says.
The budget lid of the committee bill allows a budget of 120 percent of last year's budget per pupil or 165 per cent of the average budget per pupil. The district is smaller. In any event, the district can increase its budget per pupil to 165 per cent of last year's level.
With an election, the district can increase its budget up to the level of the highest budget per pupil at any school the same size.
The committee bill has a size category for districts under 400 and two larger categories. The categories have a scale to adjust the competences in enrolment within the categories.