The Kansas Senate education committee has asked the state education department to draft a new school finance formula based on the results of a recent state survey of education costs in 55 of Kansas’ 301 school districts.
The committee requested that the new formula be based on the $6,366 median cost of educating a student with “no exceptionalities” in a 1,300-pupil school district, as concluded by the survey.
Participating districts were asked to estimate the per-pupil cost of educating such a student, meaning one who has not been identified as a special education, at-risk, or bilingual education student. On average, Kansas provides $3,863 per student.
The Kansas Supreme Court last month ordered lawmakers to restructure the school aid formula by April 12. (“Kansas Court Orders School Finance Fix,” Jan. 12, 2005.)
