Republican Proposed Block Grant Funding Bill for Schools

A proposal for block grant funding would provide money for two years for school districts in Kansas

( L-R) -- State Representative Tom Moxley, State Senator Jeff Longbine, and State Representative Lonnie Clark, — ( L-R) — State Representative Tom Moxley, State Senator Jeff Longbine, and State Representative Lonnie Clark, visiting with Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce Board Chairman Mark Ediger

while the school finance formula is being rewritten.

State Senator Jeff Longbine told a Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce legislative coffee audience that on the surface legislators would say that on the surface the measure would provide $300 million in additional K-12 funding across the state. but he noted you need to dig deeper into to see what is and is not provided.

“Personally, the block grant funding idea is okay with me. I think there are certainly things within the school finance formula that need to be looked at.” One area mentioned by the Senator included assessed valuation per pupil.

“I don’t know how we’re going to write any new formula that provides for adequacy, equity, and spends the same amount of money or the money that the court has told us we need to spend that is going to be radically than what we have.” Longbine added that’s the challenge in front of legislators.

The Senator noted it appears USD 475 would be just shy of $57 million in total state aid in the 14-15 year, and in the 17-18 year be a little over $58 million. “So that looks like a nice increase. But what this bill has also done is it has shifted the state’s portion of the KPER’s payments to the district. So when you start looking at those it’s not really an increase.” Longbine was joined during the legislative coffee by State Representatives Lonnie Clark and Tom Moxley.