Brownback’s K-12 cuts larger than first thought

The cuts that Gov. Sam Brownback is proposing in school district operating funds would total $127.4 million next year, according to a new analysis by the Kansas State Department of Education, much larger than the $107 million first estimated when the administration outlined its budget plan last week.

But the department says it cannot estimate how that would affect individual districts because the administration has not yet proposed a bill explaining how the money would be distributed among the state’s 286 school districts.

Officials in the department’s school finance division prepared the report for briefings in the House and Senate Republican caucuses. It shows that the governor is proposing to combine three kinds of aid that go to school districts — general state aid; local option budget equalization; and capital outlay equalization — into a single block grant for districts.

During the 2013-2014 school year, those three aid programs added up to $3.137 billion. But the governor’s plan calls for reducing that to $3.009 billion for each of the next two years.

But because of increases in pension contributions over the next two years, the total cut to K-12 education in the governor’s budget would be $22.5 million.

Rep. Ron Ryckman, Jr., R-Olathe, said he hoped to learn by the end of the day Wednesday when the administration plans to submit a formal bill explaining how the funds would be distributed and which committee the bill would be assigned to.