In August, 2011, I wrote that cuts in funding of Kansas public
schools and universities should not be occurring. Rather I felt that
income taxes should be increased to fully fund the educational needs of the
state, because property and sales taxes are pretty well maxed out. Since then educational
funding has not been restored to its former level, indeed costs of operating
school have continued to increase. The financial distress faced by public schools
in Kansas is real.
Whether distressed or not, expenditures by school
districts and universities should be closely monitored to insure efficient and
economical operation and to eliminate inefficiencies, that is, to achieve greater
outputs with the same inputs. One way to achieve greater efficiency is to reorganize
school districts and institutions of higher education. Fewer school districts
would reduce overheads while broadening support services. Universities and
community colleges should be reviewed to eliminate duplication of services,
excessive overhead and unnecessary “fluff”. The Department of Education and Board of Regents should provide oversight and
assistance to subsidiary educational agencies with their primary focus on monetary
savings.
On-line K-12 instruction diverts scarce resources from
public schools to enhance home-schooling viability. State educational policy
should encourage parents to seek public school education of their children as
the better alternative. On the other hand, distance-learning programs that
increase resources available to sparsely populated areas should be the focus of
on-line instruction, but only in a public school setting.
