Kansas House candidate Rich Lorenzo says he wasn’t referring to Lawrence public schools when he said Kansas spent about 43 percent of its education budget on administration.

“I didn’t have any reference to Lawrence,” the Lawrence Republican said of a 6News election forum featuring Lorenzo and state Rep. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin. “I was meaning Kansas as a whole.”

In fact, the average school district spends about 9 percent of its budget on administration, said Veryl Peter, director of school finance for the Kansas State Department of Education.

That figure does not include bills for utilities, school maintenance or cafeteria service.

The Lawrence school district spends about 7 percent of its budget on administration, according to information provided by the district.

“That shows that Randy’s doing a great job,” Lorenzo said of Lawrence schools Supt. Randy Weseman.

Lawrence school officials said their administrative costs were nowhere near Lorenzo’s statistic.

Lorenzo said he got the 43 percent figure from the Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit but did not immediately know which of two audits the data came from.

He said various people, such as current and retired legislators and retired school officials from House District 10, have told him from 40 percent to 51 percent of Kansas tax dollars for education went toward educational administration.

Kansas ranked 41 out of the 50 states’ education spending on instruction, according to the post audit division. The ranking was based on 1999-2000 data.