school spending Archives - Kansas Policy Institute

KS school districts allocate a record-low share of spending to instruction 0
- Education
- January 22, 2023
The Kansas Department of Education says instruction – costs associated with the direct interaction between students and teachers – is “the most important part of the education program, the very foundation on which everything else is built. If this function fails to perform at the needed level, the whole educational program is doomed to failure
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KSDE: School spending to exceed $17,000 per student this year 0
- Education
- January 20, 2023
The Kansas Department of Education estimates that school districts will spend $17,358 per student this year. Actual spending for the 2022 school year was $16,993. A review of the 25 largest districts based on enrollment shows budgeted spending ranging from a low of around $13,000 per student for Andover to more than $24,000 for Salina,
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Five things to know about K-12 education in Kansas 0
- Education
- November 3, 2022
Educational opportunities in Kansas can be amongst the best in the nation if we focus on students instead of institutions, learn from the example of states like Florida, and move past the partial truths and talking points of “supporting public schools.” Since much of what has been written about K-12 education is either misleading orREAD MORE

Kansas is #38 in bang for the educational buck 0
- Education
- June 2, 2021
Contrary to unsubstantiated claims by some education officials, Kansas has very low student achievement productivity, ranking #38 among the states. Education lobbyists insist that Kansas has very high achievement and gets more bang-for-the-buck than any high-achieving state, but the facts from the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the U.S. Census show differently. A dollar
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Kelly’s K-12 budget plan favors government over taxpayers 0
- Education
- June 26, 2020
When Governor Kelly signed the school funding bill in 2019, she knew it would create large budget deficits within two years. One highly placed source asked her what she would do if the state ran short of money, and she replied, “Well if we can’t afford it, I’ll just tell the court we can’t afford
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Kansas #6 in state aid but #36 in achievement productivity 0
- Education
- May 27, 2020
The 2018 Public Education Finance data from the U.S. Census again confirms Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. Spending per pupil increased by 3.8% nationwide – more than twice the rate of inflation – but achievement is flat or down in most states. Per-pupil spending
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