“Everybody bought into this study. It’ll be very difficult not to abide by it.” – Kansas House Speaker Doug Mays

“I think it would be pretty difficult for us to disown it. They’re a division of the Kansas Legislature.” – Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley

“It will be difficult to discredit. We have a lot of confidence in the Legislative Division of Post Audit.” – Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt

Having already acknowledged they have little choice but to accept the findings of the Post Audit report on school finance, these legislative leaders and the rest of their colleagues must be holding their breath in anticipation of the report’s release on Monday.

These leaders represent the three political parties currently active in Kansas: conservative Republicans, Democrats and moderate Republicans, respectively. Before even seeing the report, they have agreed that they are pretty much obliged to work with the figures handed them by the auditors. It will be interesting to see how long the leaders remain on the same page when legislators start to interpret the report and implement plans to address it.

The Post Audit report was ordered by the Legislature last year in response to the Kansas Supreme Court’s order that, among other things, told the Legislature it must base school funding on the actual costs of educating Kansas students. The only previous report spelling out such costs was the Augenblick and Myers study commissioned by the Legislature in 2001. That report estimated it would take an additional $853 million a year to meet the schools K-12 needs.

The Supreme Court accepted those figures, it said, because they were the only figures available. Legislators, however, balked, saying the study was flawed and expressing dismay at the suggested expenditure.

Clearly, legislators are hoping the Post Audit report will suggest a more moderate approach. The division has been ordered to provide two figures: inputs and outputs. The inputs are instruction, equipment and other things needed to properly educate Kansas youngsters; outputs represent what the state must spend to ensure all its children become proficient in reading, math and other subjects.

Post Audit was ordered to finish its report by the start of the 2006 legislative session. Its release was delayed twice last week, and finally scheduled for Monday, the first day of the session. The information in the report is likely to drive a huge part of this year’s legislative agenda.

As legislative leaders have indicated, whether the report suggests huge, moderate or no increases in education spending, its findings will be difficult to ignore.

It’s a cinch that the eyes of the Kansas Legislature as well as many Kansas residents will be fully focused on Monday’s release of this pivotal report.