Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Andover, chairs the Senate Ways and Means Committee that is considering a bill that restores equalization funding for public schools, but cuts overall spending authority by 7 million.

Topeka ? Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ty Masterson, R-Andover, said he was surprised nobody testified for or against a school finance bill he crafted that would restore equalization funding for schools to address a recent Kansas Supreme Court ruling.

“I find it surprising that we have 100-plus winners, if you will, in this response, 180 that lose, and I have no proponents and no opponents to this bill,” Masterson said as he opened a hearing Wednesday on Senate Bill 512.

The bill is similar to one pending in the House. It would reinstate an old formula for distributing state aid that subsidizes the capital outlay funds and local option budgets of local school districts, adding $38 million in funding for those two types of aid.

The additional money would not increase any school district’s spending authority. It only changes the mix between state funding and local property taxes school districts that qualify for the aid receive.

Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Andover, chairs the Senate Ways and Means Committee that is considering a bill that restores equalization funding for public schools, but cuts overall spending authority by 7 million.

But unlike the House bill, it would offset that cost with a $37.8 million cut in general state aid by reducing each district’s block grant by 1.55 percent.

In Lawrence, for example, the local school district would get a little more than $2.1 million in additional equalization aid, which would reduce the district’s property tax mill levy by about 2 mills, or about $35 in tax on a home valued at $150,000.

But that would be offset by a cut of $824,879 in its block grant, which directly reduces the district’s spending authority.

Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said the bill does not allow districts to make up that loss, even with local money.

Tallman said KASB was neutral on the bill because it supports restoring the equity formula.

“However, we also strongly oppose funding this aid by reducing the general operating aid of all districts,” he said.

Dave Trabert, president of Kansas Policy Institute, a conservative think tank, said he liked that the bill addresses the equity issue cited by the court without a large increase in spending. But he said the formula being reinstated is flawed because it measures the wealth of a district by its assessed valuation per-pupil.

“If a (small) district loses a family, it all of a sudden becomes wealthy,” Trabert said.

Sen. Steve Fitzgerald, R-Leavenworth, asked during the hearing whether that could be overcome by consolidating smaller districts to form larger ones.

“Simple mathematics would say that a larger number would give you less volatility because a change of just a family or two wouldn’t have the effect that it does have, so I think that’s an argument for consolidation of districts to gain efficiencies and to reduce the volatility that we’ve been chasing almost constantly,” he said.

A bill calling for the consolidation of small districts was introduced in the House this year, but it drew an outpouring of opposition, and the bill is not expected to be acted upon this year.

He also said he does not think the cuts in general state aid would affect the overall adequacy of school funding, a portion of the ongoing school finance lawsuit that the Supreme Court has not yet decided.

He noted that the court recently changed the way it judges adequacy and now looks at student outcomes, rather than the estimated cost of providing all the services required of schools, and he said it’s difficult, if not impossible, to determine how much it costs to achieve those educational outcomes.

“So it begs legal credulity to say that you don’t know where home is, but you don’t have enough money to get there,” Trabert said.

Masterson said he hopes to move the bill out of committee so it can be debated and voted on by the full Senate before the end of next week.