Print edition: 
You recently may have heard some lobbyists, legislators or television commercials offering statistics claiming that spending on Kansas public schools has gone up over the past few years and that school districts have $700 million in reserves to deal with budget cuts. The statistics they cite are, at best, partial truths.
For example, the Legislature mandated in 2005 that instead of sending Kansas Public Employees Retirement System money directly to KPERS, it first would be wired to school districts and then immediately rewired to KPERS. That's about $250 million that shows up on school district budgets.
Also, the statistics include statewide funding for new school buildings, which is called bond and interest. Though it's true that the state is spending more money on recent bond issues in some school districts, it is funding for operating costs such as salaries, utilities, fuel, food and insurance that is being cut.
It would be more honest to cite statistics that relate to the general fund, which is the primary fund for operating expenses. That fund decreased 6.9 percent from last year to this year. Even when you include funding increases from KPERS, bond and interest, local option budgets, and federal funds, the amount of funding to Kansas schools still decreased 3.2 percent from last year to this year. Meanwhile, schools have more students, more at-risk students, and higher student achievement requirements than ever before.
The other thing we hear a lot about is how school districts have $700 million sitting around in reserves. Various funds must have cash balances, because even in good economic times, money often goes out faster than it comes in. The special education fund in particular must have a healthy balance (about $225 million this year), because school districts don't receive a penny of special education funding until 3 1/2 months after the fiscal year starts.
Lately, many school districts have needed cash balances just to make payroll because of state cash-flow problems and late funding payments. Saying that these cash balances can take care of funding cuts is like saying you can absorb a pay cut from your job right after you've been paid because your mortgage and car loan haven't been deducted from your checking account yet.
The contingency fund (aka the rainy-day fund) is the primary reserve fund, but that money can only be used once. For the past two years, school funding has been cut during the school year after the vast majority of school funding was contractually committed. That's why it's important to have contingency money available.
Last year the Legislature passed a law raising the limit of how much money school districts can put into their contingency funds, to encourage school districts to cut spending and transfer savings there. They knew more midyear cuts were likely. Now some legislators and others are pointing to that money as a reason school districts can handle more cuts. Wow.
Are Kansans really naive enough to believe that districts are closing schools and laying off teachers and other employees even though we have more money than ever, just because we want to hoard our huge reserves? Some politicians and the people paying for television commercials hope so.
