Some things never change – spending increases, achievement remains low, and Kansas has one of the nation’s worst productivity rankings (bang for the education buck).
A dollar spent in Kansas buys a lot more than a dollar in New York or California, so we adjust spending for comparison to other states using the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC) cost of living index.
For the most recent available 2023 school year, Kansas had the 15th-highest spending per pupil, at $19,885; the national average was $19,779.
Kansas has high national rankings on spending, but achievement on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress—the gold standard for comparing states—is below the national average. Kansas’ composite score is 243 for the eight main measurements (4th-grade and 8th-grade reading and math for low-income students and everyone else), ranking it at #40.
We can measure each state’s relative productivity – what some might call ‘bang for the education buck’ – by dividing per-student spending adjusted for the cost of living by the NAEP composite score to find the cost per point scored.
Calculating bang for the education buck
With COL-adjusted spending at $19,885 per student, Kansas is spending $82 per NAEP point. That’s worse than the national average of $80 per point, placing Kansas at #346 on the ‘bang for the education buck’ ranking.
Once again, the data disproves the education lobby’s claim that spending more money is the key to achieving better outcomes. For example, 27 states have the same or better NAEP composite as Kansas but spend less per student.
The Kansas Association of School Boards claims the state’s public school system is #13 for achievement, but that’s not true. Kansas’ NAEP proficiency rankings range from #29 to #44, and ACT demographic scores are in the mid-30s. So, how does KASB torture low outcomes to get a high ranking? By cooking the books!
Its methodology counts things that are not measures of what students know and are able to do, like high school graduation and drop-out rates and post-secondary education enrollment, which collectively account for two-thirds of the points in the overall ranking. Further, some achievement outcomes they use count some students’ performance twice.
The Legislature is convening the first meeting of its Education Funding Task Force this week, and school administrators will undoubtedly claim that schools are underfunded. Schools need accountability, not more money, but if they don’t get their way, it’s only a matter of time before they sue taxpayers again.
(Editor’s Note: This column has been updated to reflect revised enrollment numbers.)
