Education

School budgets: savings opportunities abound 0
- Education
- May 11, 2020
Last week we explained why we believe education budgets shouldn’t be exempt from COVID budget cuts. In short, there can be no ‘sacred cows’ when the state is facing upwards of a $1 billion budget deficit next year and K-12 consumes about half of General Fund spending. Today we’ll explore some of the many school
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Education shouldn’t be exempt from COVID budget cuts 0
- Education
- May 5, 2020
With the State of Kansas facing up to a $1 billion shortfall next year in an $8 billion General Fund budget, there can be no ‘sacred cows’ exempt from COVID budget cuts. K-12 education consumes about half of the budget and with $843 million in funding, higher education takes another 11%. Most legislators knew the
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2020 Education FactBook provides 20/20 look at spending and achievement 0
- Education
- April 24, 2020
KPI has just released the 2020 version of the annual Public Education FactBook . As in previous editions, this is an invaluable resource for data on overall spending, per-pupil spending, assessment results, employment and enrollment and much more. The information provided is on multiple levels – statewide, districtwide, and nationwide – and for multiple years,
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National education groups use COVID for federal cash grab 0
- Education
- April 19, 2020
Former Chicago mayor and presidential press secretary Rahm Emanuel infamously said: “Never let a crisis go to waste.” Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, 12 national public education groups are employing that strategy by asking Congress for $200+ billion additional aid in what is likely to be the next federal stimulus package. In a letter sent to
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An open letter to parents as teachers 0
- Education
- March 29, 2020
Dear parents of school-age children, Even though schools have been closed for the rest of the school year, teaching and learning continue. Most of you are now in a new role, making sure your children are completing their assignments and getting those back to the school. You have now become a teacher. The state was
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A closer look at per-pupil spending and student achievement lowers Kansas rank 0
- Education
- March 9, 2020
When comparing 2019 NAEP composite scale scores and per-pupil expenditures among the 50 states, Kansas ranks 27th in both categories. However, when applying a cost-of-living factor to per-pupil spending, a much different picture emerges – Kansas is spending more than most states and achieving less on what KSDE considers the “gold standard” of educational assessments.
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