John Allison: The future sits in our classrooms

Rhetoric has been thick the past few months surrounding the topic of school funding. Despite comments about a supposedly broken formula and a block-grant measure that disconnects school funding from actual costs, what you do not hear about are the 486,000 young people who depend on Kansas’ public education system to prepare them to reach high standards and be college- and career-ready upon graduation.

Our community’s future sits in the classrooms where more than 51,000 young Wichitans are being prepared for careers that vary widely – doctors, teachers, lawyers, skilled trade workers, engineers, public servants and occupations that don’t yet exist. We embrace all students, be they from homes of affluence or poverty, with gifted ability or learning difficulties, with proficiency in the English language or limited English skills, regardless of the unique supports they may require.

The world walks in the hallways of our schools, and we strive to provide each student with life-changing opportunities that prepare them for success.

The reality is that it does cost more to educate students who face many of these challenges. Their academic experiences have been supported by a research-based formula that directly connects dollars to the actual costs of serving students. In the rush to change the formula because of the significant state revenue shortfall, Kansans have lost a method of funding public education that ensures both adequacy and equity for every child.

As my colleague in Kansas City, Kan., aptly noted, “Block grants take Kansas schools back several decades and will harm the education of students in Kansas.”

Neither the needs of our children nor the costs associated with serving them will change simply because the state faces a revenue shortage. Nor will those needs be met by disguising payments to the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System as additional classroom investments. There is no question that the chronically underfunded KPERS system must be supported, but we must not do so at the expense of future generations of Kansas students.

Our state faces difficult decisions stemming from a serious shortfall in revenue. As we move forward from the two-year block-grant funding mechanism to construct a new formula, I look forward to the governor honoring his commitment to study the issue carefully and involve key stakeholders – which must include educators, business leaders, parents and students – in a conversation that focuses on students and the needs that must be met in order to prepare each one for college or career readiness.

We all share the goals of stronger schools, improved student outcomes, and development of a capable and creative workforce that can grow our economy and support strong families. We must work together to find solutions that don’t forsake student success based on their ZIP code. We must work together to remove barriers to success. And we must cut through the rhetoric that has clouded previous conversations.

Kansas has a record of successful public education that we can all be proud of, and we must build on that success in order to ensure a bright future.

This story was originally published April 4, 2015 at 7:04 PM with the headline "John Allison: The future sits in our classrooms."