Following the educrats example

A letter to the editor in today's Topeka Capital-Journal has inspired me to follow the educrats example rather than do what they say. Kathy Cook, director of Kansas Families for Education, advocates for increased taxes...sorry..."revenue enhancements"...to balance the budget and stop any cut to education that might be considered.

It's really too bad the education lobby has chosen a tax cheat to advocate for higher taxes to keep the sacred education funding cow. As Wichita Liberty pointed out before, Kathy Cook hasn't exactly been the good citizen she wants everyone else to be. Seems she's had some problems paying her property taxes.

I certainly don't know her situation and honestly I don't really care. Under normal circumstances, I could care less which people pay their property taxes and which don't. That's between them and the tax man. But for goodness sakes, don't come to me, a decent, taxpaying citizen, for more money for your pet projects that have already seen nearly a 50% increase in funding over just a five year period when you yourself are not willing to pay up. It's hypocrisy at its worst.

Cook is exactly the kind of person that will likely benefit from Legislator's new tax "amnesty" program to fix the budget gap. The very people who want to tax me to death for their pet projects get to cheat on their taxes and then never pay any consequences.

Kansas schools sitting on $1.36 billion

Did you hear that? No? I did. It's the cry of the educrats. "We need money! The children will come out at dumb as Karl Rove if you cut even one dime from our budget! Oh, oh, oh the humanity! We're so hard up for cash even on penny less and we'll have to shut down half the schools, sell all the computers and start teaching with chalkboards again!"

Yes, the educrats are ramping up to save the sacred cow called education funding. That's why a new study by the Flint Hills Center is such bad news. Turns out they've been sitting on quite a sum of cash for a while. $1.36 Billion to be exact. That's billion with a "B."

In fairness, it's not all their fault. In the state's quest to make sure programs are effective, they've forced districts into sequestering money into 26 different funds. And because anything left over in their general fund is subtracted from their next disbursement from the state, anything left over is moved into one of those funds. And quite honestly I can't blame them. If someone told me I was going to be punished with less funding next year simply because I was responsible and didn't spend as much as was budgeted this year, I'd move the money too. But once it goes in, it doesn't come back out. So now over $1 billion is just sitting there, waiting to be used.

The report comes at a critical time for the state. Faced with a nearly $400 million shortfall, legislators are looking to cut whatever they can. The problem arises when they try to go after the biggest part of the budget, K-12 education. Now with nearly $1.36 billion in found money, are legislators willing to cut K-12 knowing that the resources are there for districts to provide the same level of education they always have? I think there will be an attempt, but educrats will be quick to fight back.

Some of the issues to be raised will be the variability of funds across districts. Some are flush with cash, like Wichita and Johnson County schools. Others have significantly less. How do you redistribute money equally between these schools while avoiding the ire of the Supreme Court?

And the money is in special funds. I'm sure educrats will be quick to point out that money should be spent on the programs the fund was set up for. Normally I'd agree, but the assessment depends on how much of that money was originally earmarked for that fund and how much was moved in just to avoid future cuts to general funds. What a mess to figure out.

It's sticky issue and one that needs to be dealt with in the next session. Current funds need to be used before coming to the taxpayers for more. At the very least, lawmakers need to institute uniform accounting practices between districts. After all, how can the state ensure equal funding if everyone counts their change differently?

Get ready to hear the educrats squeal

Prepare yourself to hear the government bankrolled educrats squeal. A House committee working on the budget shortfall is looking at a 3.3% cut in education funding. That's about $100 million overall.

I can't even begin to imagine what is going to be said after the reaction over a measly 1% cut. It's for the children, don't you know? Yes I know, and if more money equaled better results, I might consider getting on board. But time and time again studies have shown more money doesn't make students perform better or prepare them to enter college or the real world.

To understand that money does not equal performance, one needs to look no further than Kansas City, Missouri. In 1985, a federal judge ordered the district to come up with a plan to close the gap in achievement among white and black students. The catch? Money was to be no object.

A Cato Institute analysis gives us the plan formulation and the dismal results.

To improve the education of black students and encourage desegregation, a federal judge invited the Kansas City, Missouri School District to come up with a cost-is-no-object educational plan and ordered local and state taxpayers to find the money to pay for it.

Kansas City spent as much as $11,700 per pupil--more money per pupil, on a cost of living adjusted basis, than any other of the 280 largest districts in the country. The money bought higher teachers' salaries, 15 new schools, and such amenities as an Olympic-sized swimming pool with an underwater viewing room, television and animation studios, a robotics lab, a 25-acre wildlife sanctuary, a zoo, a model United Nations with simultaneous translation capability, and field trips to Mexico and Senegal. The student-teacher ratio was 12 or 13 to 1, the lowest of any major school district in the country.

The results were dismal. Test scores did not rise; the black-white gap did not diminish; and there was less, not greater, integration.

In fact, more money equals better schools was the mantra of educrats when the Supreme Court ordered more spending in 2005. And yet year after year no reliable evidence has been produced to show that money has a significant effect on student achievement.

Democrats have argued that Kansas should decouple it's tax code from federal tax laws to increase state revenues. Changes to Federal tax laws passed by the Democratically controlled Congress and signed by President Obama have compounded the state's budget problems because currently Kansas follow suit with any new tax breaks. And yet those changes were part of the stimulus package that was supposed to help our economy rebound. So will Kansas Democrats side with Obama or will they once again bow to the Kansas education lobby?