Kansas lawmakers hear school financing arguments

? Kansas lawmakers tasked with making school finance recommendations have heard conflicting arguments about whether more money for schools means better student performance.

The Kansas City Star reports that the Legislature’s Special Committee on K-12 Student Success heard from the Kansas Association of School Boards on Wednesday. The association says more school funding does lead to better student performance, depending on how it’s spent.

Mark Tallman, who represented the association at the meeting, said that data showed that Kansas is spending less on its schools than the national average and less than high-performing states.

“You clearly have to spend enough, and you have to spend it correctly,” Tallman said.

Dave Trabert with the Kansas Policy Institute, a think tank, said more funds over the last decade have not led to better results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Kansas currently has a block grant funding plan for schools while the state designs a new formula.

Committee member, Republican Rep. Jerry Lunn, said during the meeting that Kansas spends more than half of its general fund budget on K-12 education, compared with 35 percent national average. He also said that the state has increased per-pupil spending 33 percent greater than inflation from 1997 to 2014.

“In essence, that spending is not giving us the outcomes,” Lunn said. “I’m not seeing any dramatic return.”

Scott Frank, the state’s legislative post auditor, outlined a 2006 audit that strong association between increased spending per student and improved student performance. But he did note that academic research has reached different conclusions about the link between student performance outcomes and an increase in spending per student.

The committee plans to hold two more meetings before the legislative session begins in January.