When institutions defer their responsibility to other agencies, it causes a ripple effect across our communities. The inheriting agency breaks in some way.
It was never intended to support all that it is now asked to cover. They do not have the structures, funds, and people to fulfill their original purpose and the new things asked of them. This means they have to either stop doing something or move toward the bare minimum in all of their areas of responsibility.
The Kansas Legislature has failed to properly fund special education for over a decade, which means local school districts have had to provide more local tax dollars toward legally required services.
My cooperative has seen a sharp increase in special education local expenses due to increasing needs and declining special education funding from the state.
Based on trajectories special education will cost my local districts about 55% more next year than this year. This is in part due to increased expenditures to meet growing student needs. The cooperative has also used carryover funds from the previous year to absorb rising costs. The carryover funds are now at a minimum level for us to feel comfortable entering a school year, so we must meet these costs with additional local funds.
Kansas Legislature is quick to point to Federal funding as being the issue. While Federal funds have stayed below the original promise, Federal legislators have at least maintained their funding level over the last 25 years. The percentage of our budget covered by federal funds has stayed around 15% going back as far as we have records.
At the same time, State legislators have reduced their funding levels. When the state last funded special education at the levels in Kansas law, they covered about 55% of the cooperative’s costs. Now that amount is 45% and reducing every year.
This is not sustainable or appropriate. If the policymakers in Topeka have no intention of taking care of the needs of our most vulnerable learners, then our school districts will continue to step up and do the right thing at the expense of other needs in our schools. They will do this as long as they can, but this will lead to irreversible problems that will cause schools to close and class sizes to rise. Schools that are doing their best in many areas will have to change the things they do that are above minimum requirements. This would affect general education support programs, gifted services, and students attending private schools or home schools.
If you think special education should be funded appropriately, go here to find your legislators and contact them. Tell them to support the Governor’s recommendation for special education funding. This would be a great first step toward righting the wrong that has occurred over the last 13 years. It’s time that Kansas meets its responsibilities.