2005 Kansas supreme court ruling on school funding pays off
The Topeka Capitol-Journal reports that after the 2005 Kansas Supreme Court ruling mandating a giant increase in school funding, the Tecumseh school district was one of the numerous districts that added or expanded their all-day kindergarten programs. A recent state audit of the additional $630 million appropriated from 2004 to 2006 because of the ruling revealed that districts spent 71% of the money on instructional costs, including teacher salaries, additional staff members and programs, such as all-day kindergarten. From the 2004-05 school year to 2006-07, all-day instruction increased 139% from 14,772 students to 35,304 statewide. Teacher salaries and benefits were the biggest expenditure, making up 55% of new instructional money. Statewide, the average salary increased 11% from $44,436 to $49,341. “Most of the districts in the state had reached a point where they were spending as much of their budget on teacher salaries as they could,” said Peg Dunlap, director of instructional advocacy for the Kansas National Education Association. “It wasn't until the lawsuit that they were able to attract and retain the quality teachers.” That has paid off for Topeka Unified School District 501, which used much of its money to increase its full-time teaching staff from 1,288 in the 2004-05 school year to 1,345 in the 2006-07 academic year. The money also went to increasing stagnant teacher pay in USD 501. The district's average salaries had increased by 2% in 2002 and 2003 before dropping by 5% in 2004, the year before the school finance decision. "We weren't competitive before, and now we are," said Mike Wilson, associate superintendent for USD 501.
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal, 6/29/08, By James Carlson
[Editor’s Note: The state audit report on “K-12 Education: School Districts’ Use of Additional State Funding” is below. The 2005 decision was Montoy v. Kansas, 112 P.3d 923 (Kan. 2005). Background on that case is available starting below with the Legal Clips summary of a 2006 decision by the court in the case finding that the state’s funding efforts satisfied the 2005 ruling.]
Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit report
NSBA School Law pages on Montoy v. Kansas