Representative Jim Ward, Democrat from Wichita and former Wichita school board member, stated in a KAKE Television news story “If you cut $10 million, you’re now cutting into the bone, the marrow, and you’re going to have a significant impact on the ability to deliver education.”
The $10 million Rep. Ward refers to is the amount that USD 259, the Wichita public school district, may lose if across-the-board cuts are made to the Kansas budget. Mr. Ward would prefer surgical cuts, which would limit the harm to the Wichita schools to $2 million.
Will a loss of $10 million cause the harm that Ward describes? While $10 million is a lot of money, the budget of the Wichita schools for this year is about $604 million. In perspective, the across-the-board cuts amount to about 1.6 percent of the budget.
Could the Wichita school district survive on 1.6% less? Would a cut of this magnitude significantly impact the education of Wichita schoolchildren?
Related posts:
- Wichita schools, despite claims, find cost savings
- Wichita schools seek public input on budget priorities
- Statement opposing Kansas tax funded lawsuits
- School finance attorney criticizes budget cuts
- Wichita BOE’s Rogers: Kansas taxes are not high enough
- Kansas school funding: Can the education lobby be believed?
- Kansas Public Schools: Draconian Cuts?
- Official Reaction to Possibility of State School Bond Funding Cuts
- Governor orders steeper cuts in face of budget crisis
- Wichita teachers union uses meeting for advocacy, campaigning
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Public education is a monopoly that has been overfed and is morbidly obese. This is indicated by the squealing caused by a minor restriction of its (USD 259) diet. This monopoly is eating us out of house and home like a fifty year old boomerang child with access to his parents credit card. The next time you go to Golden Corral and see a fat kid go back to the buffet to indulge himself three times-think; property tax funding, state funding, federal funding.
annonobob makes it sound that their is a huge overabundance of waste in school systems. While I have to agree that their is Always some waste in any state agency and our educational system needs to look at itself and make neccessary changes. But, you make it sound like our educational systems are like the cooporate CEO’s that we have been hearing so much about.
Education is expensive, but nothing is more important, especially when we have so many children that are getting no educational guidance from their home….but that is a whole other issue.
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