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Dear Kansas Legislator, March 2, 2009
The voters elected you and me to “
 think outside the box
” and make hard decisions. As amember of the Kansas State Board of Education, I have given a lot of thought to the followingpowerful proposals which will save millions of dollars in education costs during FY2010 andyears to come without reducing the quality of instruction for Kansas students. The $563million in Federal Stimulus funds for K-12 education will help offset these reductions. But, Iurge you to pass and implement these cost savings—this legislative session.
 1)
 
Define a Kansas School District as having 10,000 students or more.
This will save $300million per year by reorganizing and merging Kansas school districts. (Below are examplesof cost savings from school superintendents Little and Kennedy.)2)
 
An Equal Day’s Pay for an Equal Day’s Work
!! Since 80% of education costs are forpersonnel, to lower expenses and optimize the use of existing classrooms, the Legislaturemust first increase the productivity of K-12 teachers and Post-Secondary faculty.3)
 
Pass SB20 to halt State payments on school bonds not yet issued.
Over $800 million innew bonds were voted last November and pitched by special interest contributors claiming theState has “free money” of 25% and more. There is NO FREE LUNCH!!4)
 
Save 3-4% of K-12 costs by passing Pay-to-Play for varsity sports.
The extra costs forcoaches, busses, insurance, referees, utilities and facilities needs to be spent on teachingemployable skills to all students. Our graduates first need to qualify and compete for jobs.5)
 
Change the definition of At-Risk students
and base the weighting in the school financeformula on the number of students actually having difficulty learning.1)
 
SAVE $300 MILLION THROUGH SCHOOL DISTRICT REORGANIZATION:
The current State budget shortfall makes it necessary for each of us as leaders to
“Do MoreWith Less”
. Government costs too much in Kansas because there are too many taxing units withthe authority to increase taxes and fees rather than operate efficiently. This is especially true inKansas K-12 school districts.Each year, over $300 million could be saved in Kansas by merging the 296 school districtsinto (+/- 40) administrative units of 10,000 students or more. Below are district enrollments for2007 showing that currently only 7 districts in Kansas have over 10,000 students.
There are 252school districts or 85% which have less than 2,000 students. This is not cost-effective.
Number of USDs by Enrollment Categories
< 100 101-200 201-399 400-1,999 2,000-9,999 > 10,000 Total
4 26 70 152 37 7 296
Total 2006-2007 Enrollment 468,778
In addition to saving $300 million per year in state general fund expenditures, by reorganizingdistricts, the tax base in each district will increase which will help equalize the educationalopportunity for each Kansas student—no matter where they attend school. Increasing the tax basewill also help districts raise local dollars through their LOB while lowering the amount of propertytax paid by each taxpayer. Most of the savings will come from the elimination of duplicatetransportation, administrative, operational and personnel costs.Article 6 of the Kansas Constitution gives the Legislature the responsibility and authority toreorganize school districts. It states:
 
 
Constitution of the State of Kansas
 
Article 6.--EDUCATION
1: Schools and related institutions and activities. The legislature shall provide
for
intellectual,educational, vocational and scientific improvement by establishing and maintaining publicschools,
educational institutions and related activities which
 
 may be organized and changed 
in suchmanner as may be provided by law.
 School district reorganization will establish
“R
 
egional Education Districts”.
 
It is NOTabout closing schools or eliminating Friday night football or basketball in hundreds of smallKansas towns.
Instead, it is getting smart about how we use limited tax dollars by cutting millionsof dollars of duplicate expenses.Rather than waste this $300 million each year, we must use these savings to teach our kidsemployable skills and help fund other vital government services. At the end of this letter is a brief description of the advantages and an example of how the savings are achieved as proposed to theKansas Legislature by Superintendents Dr. Sharol Little from Manhattan and Mr. Ken Kennedy fromPratt in 2003.A simple definition of a school district added to the Omnibus Budget Bill can read:
 
To receive State General Fund per pupil dollars, a school district in Kansas must enroll at least
 
10,000 students or more by September 20
 th
 , 2011.
 This amendment needs to be passed this legislative session. It puts in Statute two keyfactors—FTE student enrollment plus a date certain for local boards to work together to reorganize toset district boundaries within their regions. School Board elections for the new districts will follow.By acting now, small districts around the state will have time during FY2010 to work outcompatible boundaries and merger details. To facilitate passage, I and others will be glad to testifyduring legislative committee hearings on how to implement this reorganization and save money.2)
 
INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY OF K-12 TEACHERS AND POST-SECONDARYFACULTY BY LEGISLATING A FAIR DAY’S WORK FOR A FAIR DAY’S PAY
 Since education costs are 80% for personnel, a significant way to reduce expenses is toincrease productivity. This fact is true for both business and government agencies. Stated simply, itis
A
 
Full Day’s Work For A Full Day’s Pay!!
 Having Team Time, Teacher In-service, and Planning Periods when students are in schoolincreases class size and leaves classrooms empty during the day. In some schools, as much as 1/3
rd
 of each school day teachers are not teaching students. So, by inserting the following language intoKSA 72-5413(l) and KSA 72-5417(3), local boards of education and post-secondary administratorswill have statutory authority to lower costs, reduce student-teacher ratios and make optimum use of classroom space. Below is sample wording for such an amendment for K-12 school districts.
 
To receive a full-time salary, each Kansas K-12 teacher must be in the school building not less
 
 than eight hours per day. While students are in the school building, each K-12 teacher must teach
 
each class period. After the students leave the attendance center at the end of each school day, the
 
 teachers shall remain in the building to grade papers, hold parent-teacher conferences, collaborate
 
with other teachers, attend in-service training, tutor students, sponsor after school clubs or
 
 supervise other activities such as intramural sports.
 
 
The problem of low productivity is even more expensive at most post-secondary colleges anduniversities. Full time faculty are paid to teach 12 credit hours. But many large classes of Freshmen and Sophomore students are taught by graduate teaching assistants. So the number of students taught per semester by full time faculty is often 50 students or less.Furthermore, since most university and college classes are taught in the morning, this leavesfaculty free during the afternoon for endless meetings, class preparation, and grading papers. Theclassrooms are empty most of the day so many faculty simply leave campus to do personal errands orgo home. Below is sample wording to increase the productivity of post-secondary faculty.
To receive a full time salary for teaching at a Kansas Post-secondary college or university, faculty
 
 must teach a minimum of 12 credit hours with at least 100 FTE students per academic semester.
 
Graduate teaching assistants will only be paid to lead discussion groups, grade assignments and 
 
 tests or prepare laboratories and classroom space for faculty but not to teach course content.
Students and parents are paying ever increasing tuition to learn from experienced faculty.Kansas taxpayers and the State Legislature also expect faculty to teach. So, by assuring that facultyare actually teaching students, existing classrooms will be used more effectively plus students andtaxpayers will receive full benefit from the faculty sharing their knowledge and experience.
3)
 
ELIMINATE STATE PAYMENTS ON UNISSUED SCHOOL BONDS:
As you know, SB20 bill has been introduced this session in the Senate Ways & MeansCommittee. It is very responsible, practical legislation. If passed, it will temporarily stop the use of State revenues to pay for new school bonds sold after January 1
st
, 2009.This bill will impact the over $800 million in new bonds approved by voters on November 4
th
,2008. It will save Kansas taxpayers +/-$400 million over the life of the bonds if the school districtsdecide to sell these bonds between now and 2011. In most cases, it will also cause the local districtsto set priorities and cut the fat out of their construction plans so that local property tax payers are notpaying more than was on their ballot.Many of these building projects will not improve student achievement. For example,contributors in Wichita who supported the $370 million bond election were not parents or majoremployers—they were contractors and architects who wanted huge contracts funded by the taxpayers.This was pure greed. They “bought the election” by purchasing massive TV ads and over 10,000yard signs. They also distributed thousands of 
25% buttons
with the implication that the State of Kansas had free money to help pay these bonds. In many small districts, the State’s portion wouldbe 30% to 50% of the bonds sold. The State can no longer fund “wish lists” put together by smallcommittees, sports busters, contractors and architects. These State tax dollars are needed elsewhere.4)
 
PAY-TO-PLAY FOR K-12 VARSITY SPORTS
 American students are facing stiff competition for jobs from well educated and less expensivelabor in other countries. Yet, only 1% of our State General Fund budget in Kansas is spent onvocational education courses. This lack of vocational funding is also true for local school districts.By contrast, as much as 3-4% of K-12 expenses are for varsity athletics. Students taught inother countries do not have expensive uniforms, paid coaches, massive sports complexes in eachschool. They go to school to learn and their taxpayers expect and receive academic excellence.Is it more important to watch a few students chase another student down the field with afootball or make sure that each K-12 student in Kansas graduates with employable skills?It is time for those parents, sport-boosters and want-to-be jocks to pay the extra cost of coaches, uniforms, insurance, referees, utilities such as lights and heat, new additions to gymnasiums
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