The watch word for school funding in Kansas is now block grants. But how that will work remains a mystery to educators.
Gov. Sam Brownback wants to scrap the current per pupil funding formula which, he says, is complicated and inefficient.
While lawmakers try to write a new formula, Brownback proposes to give school districts lump sum payments over the next two fiscal years equal to about what they receive now.
Across the state, that’s $3 billion in aid to local school districts.
But the problem, Mark Tallman from the Kansas Association of School Boards said in a webinar, is what happens to a district if they get more students?
“We believe enrollment over the next several years is going to go up which means if you have a frozen block grant you’ll get less per pupil,” he says.
Indeed, the governor’s own budget anticipates total school enrollment in Kansas growing by about 4,000 students in the next three years.
