Schools face uncertain state support
Bob Grover, Special to the Gazette
Friday, December 9, 2011
Emporia educators face challenges not experienced by previous generations, yet budget cuts at the state level have provoked austerity measures that hamper the education that Kansas children receive. The Governor’s funding plan — as revealed to date — could result in either more cuts or higher local taxes.
The Emporia district has employed a series of measures to improve operating efficiencies and reduce staff through retirement incentives. These steps have allowed the district to reduce the budget while sparing direct services to students. Some examples are the recently completed energy efficiency projects that are lowering utility bills and operating costs. Also, the district closed Lowther South and is preparing to close Lowther North. Once the new K-8 configuration is in its final form, the district will save significant dollars in operating costs.
However, the Governor’s funding plan threatens the district’s ability to continue this trend. Further cuts are bound to affect the classroom. No written summary of the Governor’s plan has been published, but information provided at recent education summits suggests that changes in the funding formula would be detrimental to districts such as Emporia. The proposal would rely on block grants, local sales taxes, and local property taxes.
Despite the uncertainty of state support, Kansas schools must prepare students for a changing world. Theresa Davidson, Superintendent of Emporia Public Schools, explained how education has changed: “When I was a young student, teachers could prepare me for a vocation that was already there, so they knew what I was going to need. Today we’re preparing students for vocations that aren’t even invented yet — things we haven’t heard of.”
Schools must prepare today’s students to utilize current technologies. “As a student in high school in my age, an ink pen and pencil and typewriter were all you needed. You could go into the world and be successful,” Davidson said. “Some of our students are fortunate enough to have current technology at home. For others, the school is their only opportunity to have that technology.”
Another change is the need for a higher level of education. Today a high school diploma is essential, and most young people will also need some kind of postsecondary training — a technical school, specific training for an occupation, a bachelor’s degree, or an advanced university degree.
“I think another thing that has changed is that our students are experiencing far more poverty that we did in the past, and the distribution of wealth is so much wider,” Davidson said. “Also, there are so many more students whose first language is not English in our community. A third of our students are eligible for and receive bilingual assistance because their English is still developing. That’s something the schools of my era didn’t have to deal with.”
Addressing these burgeoning needs is hampered by budget cuts over the past three years. Robert Scheib, Assistant Superintendent-Business for Emporia Public Schools, described the deep cuts in the district’s budget in recent years. “We were at $4,400 per student four years ago; the district budget was just shy of $33 million. Now we are at $3,780 per student and our total budget is just under $29 million.”
Scheib said that the district cut $1.4 million from the district budget in 2009-10, primarily by offering employees an early retirement incentive, and 59 people took advantage of it. In addition, 26 positions were not filled. In 2010 - 11, the district had to cut an additional million dollars from the budget.
Davidson summarized the impact of these cuts: “When we implemented the retirement incentive, we lost a lot of experience. Fifty-nine highly experienced employees retired, and we hired brand new young people and didn’t fill some of the positions.”
Class size has increased in a few schools. “We probably had 17 to 22 in our classes, and now we might find 24 to 26 in a class,” Davidson said. There are now fewer teacher aides, which increases the load that teachers carry. In addition, the professional development program for teachers has been scaled back; however, the district has found ways to replace vacant positions with more support through instructional coaches. As a result, all schools continue to have academic supports for students.
Davidson concluded, “We are a part of Schools for Fair Funding, and we support the study that the State Board of Education did several years ago that said our schools were underfunded. What we would like to see is that the Legislature would step up to their commitment to provide for that ‘suitable education’ that was defined in the study that they themselves conducted.”