State of Kansas Finances

[giskard]

I don't know how they measure private schools in Wichita, but in Omaha, you can measure private schools. Terra Nova teats are done annually, and most schools track their students through high school and college. While you can never know how specifically "John" or "Jane" faired, you do have graduation and scholarship numbers. Also, when we sent our son from private eighth grade to public high school, without seeing his transcript, the counselor put him in all honors classes.

If they take any tests like that around here, they don't mention them or say where you can find the test results.

[MoValley John]

If they take any tests like that around here, they don't mention them or say where you can find the test results.

Really? We get our kid's individual test scores, along with the aggregate from the school broken down into correct percentages, along with national percentiles. I don't know if everybody does it, but Omaha Catholic schools do.

[MoValley John]

This is what my kids take every year.

http://www.princeave.org/sites/default/files/terranova_testing_powerpoint_0.pdf

[giskard]

Really? We get our kid's individual test scores, along with the aggregate from the school broken down into correct percentages, along with national percentiles. I don't know if everybody does it, but Omaha Catholic schools do.

Now that you mention Catholic schools, they along with a couple of the Lutheran schools take the same assessments as the public schools, so you can compare them. When we checked out a couple of the more prestigious private schools in Wichita though, they did not mention any standardized testing at all. We were just interested in Kindergarten, but one of those schools insisted that parents sit through a presentation about the entire school so you would think they would have emphasized any testing.

[atlwsu]

Private schools will always out perform private schools. The fact that parents pay increases the parental involvment, they can and do exclude trouble makers and often kids with learning disabilities, and more emphasis on the core and less on socialization.

My kids went to private school and public school. They all went to undergraduate private colleges and have done their post graduate work at public universities. My son has dyslexia and the private schools I could afford could not teach him. He went to the local public school from 2nd - 12th. He now has two college degrees.

I prefer private but they are not for everyone.

[im4wsu]

Cutting administrative costs of public schools would seem to have the effect of causing good admins to leave the state. Either EVERY state has to cut their admin costs, or states that cut those costs start losing admins to better-pay8ing states. The good ones leave and the bad ones can't.

This makes it sound as if cutting admin costs means cutting a individual admin's salary/benefits causing them to seek employment elsewhere and that individual admin is one of the "good" ones that it would be desirable to retain. It seems to make more sense, if we're talking about cutting salary/benefits, to make those cuts for individuals that it might be better if they left than if the "good" ones left.

Cutting individual's salary/benefits is certainly one way to reduce admin costs, but elimination of positions through thoughtful and more efficient reorganization of administrative units is another. That will result in someone leaving because their job position is no longer there, and that someone may be "good," but then again, if salary/benefits will not be the factor that results in good ones leave/bad ones remain.

[shocka khan]

Looks like JoCo has started the 'Sam Brownback **** Show' this election season.

http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/yael-t-abouhalkah/article85812392.html

I'm not sure anything Katherine Sebellius says would stir me, and I'm old enough to remember Carlin from when I actually lived in Topeka. We all used to laugh about the rumors that he had an STD that he caught from sleeping with a beauty queen back in those days, ROFLMAO.

But two ex-republican governors also joining the cabal? Looks like Sam Brownback is as popular as tire tracks on your underwear (which also causes a brownback).

I'm wondering if they let SN'ers read these articles in Wichita.......your thoughts, please.

[Aargh]

Interesting timing on the latest State money problems. While everyone, including us, was going over (and over) the school issues, the State managed to borrow another $900 million.

I believe that runs the total borrowings since the 2012 tax cuts to around $3 billion. Total indebtedness of the State prior to 2012 was around $1.4 billion and that was mostly bonds for roads and bridges.

The Wichita Eagle limits article views, so I'll post an ABC News link. Yes, this made the national news.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/kansas-borrow-900-million-cover-fiscal-year-40060847

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

I'm wondering if they let SN'ers read these articles in Wichita.......your thoughts, please.

1) Opinion articles by a man (Abouhalkah) who recently tweeted that he hopes gun rights proponents burn in hell... well, let's just say, I don't respect the author enough to care about his opinion on much of anything.

2) All 4 governors (yes, even the 2 Republicans) oversaw growth of the state budget at a MUCH faster rate than the state economy as a whole. Yes, I'll admit that Bill Graves opinion means 1000x more to me than any garbage Sebellius spews, but still, it is interesting to note that this is really a group of moderates and liberals complaining about a far right conservative.

3) I will admit that I find all of this state budget stuff extremely confusing due to the simple difficulty of getting straightforward, unbiased information. Honestly, I'm not a big Brownback fan. I consider myself well right of center in general, but I'm pretty sure he is to the right of me by quite a bit. However, when I look around and see nothing but expansion, expansion, expansion in government power and spending, it makes me glad to see some real push back from the far right. It's not that I want a Brownback type in charge for the next 100 years, but long term, I think his actions may help serve as a balancing force. When the teeter totter has been tipped too far left for so long, it becomes harder to complain very much by a short stretch in the other direction.

[Aargh]

...when I look around and see nothing but expansion, expansion, expansion in government power and spending, it makes me glad to see some real push back from the far right. ...

They didn't actually push back. They pretty much gave their constituency a tax break and then made little or no effort to reduce the size of the government. Tax cuts are popular. Those will get you elected. Spending cuts are incredibly unpopular and will get you voted out of office.

Tax cuts without the courage to make the required spending cuts is not what I'd call "pushing back". I'd call it something closer to bankrupting the state. Please don't tell me the legislators (and voters) actually believed that tax cuts would be revenue-neutral. If our collective intelligence has fallen to that level, then we deserve what we've gotten.

When it came time for some cost-cutting, what was the stance of the ultra-conservative legislators in Topeka?

Johnson County? School districts there were going to lose some money due to equalization. The entire legislative bloc from Johnson County refused to accept a penny of cuts if it was going to be in their districts.

Pittsburg? Pittsburg State was going to lose some money in the cuts to higher education. An influential legislator from Pittsburg refused to have any cuts in his district. So, the legislature reworked the funding formula so his district wouldn't receive any cuts. That cost KU and KSU millions of dollars (Manhattan and Lawrence had legislators from the other party). KU and KSU actually lost money because of their success in getting national research grants! They got penalized for being successful at what they're supposed to be doing!

But, the rep from Pittsburg is facing a re-election challenge, so he didn't get any cuts in his district. In addition!, he got approval for a rebuild on a road in his district when KDOT was delaying everything.

The conservative legislators didn't exactly "push back". Spending and the size of government stayed pretty much the same. They did privatize some things, which sort of makes government smaller, but we still have to fund the private companies, so it's kind of 6 of one or half-a-dozen of another there. KanCare is starting to look like the poster child for what can go wrong with privatizing public functions.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

They didn't actually push back. They pretty much gave their constituency a tax break and then made little or no effort to reduce the size of the government.

Now I'm really confused. You are saying Brownback and Co. HAVE NOT done much to slow the rate of growth of government? I thought people were yelling about all the cuts he was forced to make due to lower tax receipts in recent years.

See page 16 of the following report:

http://budget.ks.gov/publications/FY2015/FY2015_Comparison_Report--7-10-2014.pdf

Fiscal Year	General Fund Spending (in Billions of $)
2001	4.42
2002	4.11
2003	4.25
2004	4.52
2005	4.84
2006	5.39
2007	5.81
2008	5.69
2009	5.59
2010	5.19
2011	5.88
2012	6.41
2013	6.34
2014	5.99
2015	5.97

For reference, Mark Parkinson followed directly after Sebellius and served from April 2009 through 2010. Brownback started in early 2011. I imagine FY 2012 was the first budget he really impacted. It appears that total spending has actually dropped (not just slowed, but actually dropped) each year since.

What am I missing?

[shocka khan]

Now I'm really confused. You are saying Brownback and Co. HAVE NOT done much to slow the rate of growth of government? I thought people were yelling about all the cuts he was forced to make due to lower tax receipts in recent years.

See page 16 of the following report:

http://budget.ks.gov/publications/FY2015/FY2015_Comparison_Report--7-10-2014.pdf

Fiscal Year	General Fund Spending (in Billions of $)
2001	4.42
2002	4.11
2003	4.25
2004	4.52
2005	4.84
2006	5.39
2007	5.81
2008	5.69
2009	5.59
2010	5.19
2011	5.88
2012	6.41
2013	6.34
2014	5.99
2015	5.97

For reference, Mark Parkinson followed directly after Sebellius and served from April 2009 through 2010. Brownback started in early 2011. I imagine FY 2012 was the first budget he really impacted. It appears that total spending has actually dropped (not just slowed, but actually dropped) each year since.

What am I missing?

I don't see anything, the most interesting statistic to come out of your work is that Sebelius was actually more of a fiscal conservative that Brownback was/is if you're looking at the state general fund only. I say this because the increases that seem out of kilter actually started in 2011 Prior to that, the numbers were in the 4.5 to 5.5% range except for 2007 and 2011.

Here's another question for you, is the general fund used to pay for medicare or Medicaid? I'm thinking no, so I would ask you to provide references with your statement.

[Aargh]

It's dropped to still above what we were spending before he was elected.

Highway Patrol is understaffed. State hospitals are understaffed (losing Federal funds because of that). There are a lot of temporary "fixes" going on that are making those numbers go down Law enforcement, handling the criminally insane, and roads and bridges appear to be some of the areas where smaller government is taking place.
.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

I don't see anything, the most interesting statistic to come out of your work is that Sebelius was actually more of a fiscal conservative that Brownback was/is if you're looking at the state general fund only. I say this because the increases that seem out of kilter actually started in 2011 Prior to that, the numbers were in the 4.5 to 5.5% range except for 2007 and 2011.

Here's another question for you, is the general fund used to pay for medicare or Medicaid? I'm thinking no, so I would ask you to provide references with your statement.

Wait just a second. Spending took a hit in states all across the country in 2008/2009/2010 due to the recession. A few years later, everyone started restoring funding and growing budgets rapidly again. Kansas was just one of many states to do both.

Now, spending in KS has dropped 3 straight years and has nearly returned to 2007 levels, and you "don't see anything"? Huh?

Also, regarding medicare/caid, if that is separate from the general fund, doesn't that further prove my point? Brownback has fought MC expansion quite vigorously. I'm not following your point.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

Also, education is far and away the giant in the state budget. With all the people currently yelling about Brownback underfunding schools, are you guys saying that he has been funding them just like his predecessors?