Kansas Values Institute uses hyperbole, false and misleading statements to smear Derek Schmidt
Kansas Values Institute uses hyperbole, false and misleading statements to smear Derek Schmidt
Show me the data!! Kansas Department of Education data show KVI lies about “devastating cuts to our schools”
KVI has a history of confusing and deceptive ads that goes back a decade, so it’s not surprising their ads have surfaced this year, especially in the governor’s race with Attorney General Derek Schmidt opposing Gov. Laura Kelly.
Keep these facts in mind for the context of KVI ads:
KVI has been funded by teacher unions, other unions, abortion-related organizations, “dark money,” and the Democratic Governors Association.
KVI president, Dan Watkins, was described as “the wonder boy of Kansas Democratic politics in the late 1970s” and was part of Laura Kelly’s gubernatorial transition team in 2018.
Kansas Values Institute’s hyperbole and gaslighting does not contribute to civic discourse or improvements in school finance, but KVI attempts to steer elections with its huge dark money expenditures.
Ads Paid for by Kansas Values Institute
The Kansas Institute for Politics at Washburn University provides a repository of Kansas political ads. This is a great site to review political ads.
At present KVI has produced 16 pro-Kelly, anti-Schmidt ads that are 15 or 30 seconds long, as documented by Washburn University:
KVI used school finance as the issue in 11 of these 16 ads (specifically ads 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15 – ad numbers are from the Washburn page). This makes sense since teacher unions (National Education Association, Kansas NEA, American Federation of Teachers) have contributed to KVI for years.
KVI claims about “devastating cuts” and “increased class size” can be refuted using data from the Kansas Department of Education, which will be shown later in this article.
Here are some of the “school highlights” from these ads:
“Devastating cuts to our schools” (ads 1, 9)
“Deep cuts to schools” (ad 2)
“Cuts to Kansas schools” (ad 3)
“Underfunding schools” (ad 6)
“Shortchanged schools” (ads 7, 14)
“Cut millions from Kansas schools” (ad 10)
“Cuts funding for schools” (ad 11)
“Cuts made to schools were devastating … class sizes increased” (ad 12)
“Largest cuts to schools in Kansas History” (ad 15)
Second grade teacher, “Samantha,” appeared in ads 12 and 15.
Is Samantha suffering from false memories in ad 12? “I’ll never forget what Sam Brownback did to our schools, and I’ll never forgive Derek Schmidt for supporting him.” Can Samantha reveal what specific class and what specific students were part of her “memories” about Brownback and Schmidt? How were the students harmed?
In ad 15 Samantha generalized her views to all teachers and parents: “Parents will never forget what Brownback did to our kids, and teachers will never forgive Derek Schmidt for supporting him.”
The Kansas Values Institute ads never mention the court battle between the Kansas legislature and the Kansas Supreme Court over the definition of “suitable provision for finance” of Kansas schools as defined in the Kansas Constitution:
The legislature shall make suitable provision for finance of the educational interests of the state.
One would think the duly-elected state legislature with the “power of the purse” could decide what a “suitable provision for finance” meant. In the end, the Court found that “suitable” meant more spending for schools.
Schmidt had suggested to the legislature to have a “thoughtful” discussion and let the public have a say on the state’s duty to fund public education.
KVI Claim: “Some of the Largest Cuts to Schools in Kansas History”
Show me the data!!
While Brownback’s experiment in free market enterprise did not play out as expected, the data show Kansas schools were not “devastated” under his administration. In fact, total spending per pupil increased during his administration.
Total Expenditures Per Pupil
Data from KSDE reflects general increases in total expenditures per pupil most years, including during Brownback’s administration.
Which year or years in the chart represent “some of the largest cuts to schools in Kansas history”?
School District Cash Balance
Kansas school districts report their total “Cash Balance” to the state every July 1.
KSDE data show that in 2007 all the school districts collectively had about $1.2 billion in their cash balances, but that grew to a staggering $2.4 billion in 2021.
If “cut millions from Kansas schools” happened, why were cash reserves not tapped to make up the difference? Why do cash balances increase almost every year?
The chart does show Gov. Sam Brownback was fiscally responsible in not allowing school district cash balances to grow under his watch, unlike any other governor.
Has Gov. Laura Kelly questioned why four Kansas school districts need over $100 million in their cash balance now? In particular, why does USD 259 in Wichita need a cash balance of over $230 million?
Data Details
KVI Claim: “Class Sizes Increased”
KVI ad 12 claimed Brownback’s cuts to schools was “devastating,” as well other problems, such as increased class size.
Kansas Department of Education data shows the Pupil-Teacher Ratio did increase from 14.6 pupils/teacher in school year 2010-2011 to 15.1 in 2011-2012.
KVI’s claim is technically true about increased class sizes, but how impactful is an additional half-student (or less) to class size?
In other words, how impactful is having roughly half the classes the same size, and half the classes with one additional student? How can that impact be measured and is it significant?
Show me the data!!
Large ratio increases. The statewide Pupil-Teacher Ratio increased 2.74% to 14.6 pupils/teacher in school year 2009-2010 under Gov. Parkinson, and 3.95% to 15.1 to pupils/teacher in school year 2011-2012 under Gov. Brownback.
Large ratio decrease. The 2020-2021 2.93% decrease in Pupil-Teacher Ratio to 14.8 pupils/teacher under Gov. Kelly was caused by a nearly same 2.92% decrease in full-time equivalent enrollment. The drop of nearly 14,000 students that year was caused by COVID-19. In this case, lower class sizes are not good with many students now absent from school.
Pupil-Teacher Ratios vary considerably across the roughly 300 school districts in Kansas. Citing single statewide numbers may not reflect what is happening in a particular school district.
This file shows pupil-teacher ratio values for the nearly 300 school districts in the state over school years 2007-2008 through 2021-2022.
From that Excel file, here are tables for the school districts for the largest and smallest Pupil-Teacher Ratios in school year 2021-2022:
Districts with largest and smallest pupil-teacher ratios
Data Details
Why might some think school spending was cut?
In discussions of school finance someone is gaslighting when presenting base aid per pupil as the “big picture” of funding per pupil without the full story.
Total expenditures per pupil, especially by school district, is usually a more meaningful story.
School officials often cite “base aid” as the metric for comparison. A KSDE table shows base aid figures by year back to the 1992-1993 school year.
Base aid per student
In particular, base aid dropped from $3937 per pupil in school year 2010-2011 to $3780 per pupil the year after Brownback became governor, which is about a 4% drop.
But total expenditures per pupil increased from $12,285 to $12,653 from school year 2010-2011 to 2011-2012, which is a 3% increase.
Why is base aid ever cited as a metric when it’s only about one-third or less of the total expenditures per pupil?
Brownback’s explanation was published by the Topeka Capital-Journal in 2014, but seems forgotten:
Brownback campaign blasts 'dark money' group's TV ads, Topeka Capital Journal, Aug. 13, 2014.
Governor hits back at Kansas Values Institute, says education spending has increased every year under his watch
. . .
John Milburn, spokesman for the Brownback campaign, said the institute's ads were meant to mislead the public and blamed the governor's Democratic opponent, House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence.
"The entire Davis campaign is ultimately based on two bold-faced and easily disproven lies," Milburn said. "The latest ad is proof that his liberal allies in the media and special interest groups will stop at nothing to deceive Kansas voters on these two key issues."
Brownback's campaign prefers to point to a total education spending figure that includes items other than base state aid, like payments to the teacher pension system and aid for capital improvements. That figure has gone up.
. . .
Disclosures from the Kansas National Education Association's political action committee, which is required to report donors and expenses, showed the teachers' union gave $120,000 to the Kansas Values Institute this year.
The article said KVI Executive Director Ryan Wright admitted they were “relying on the base state aid per pupil figure to make its case”. [In 2019 Ryan Wright joined Gov. Kelly’s staff.]
School District General Fund Budget Formula
Here’s the “simple” formula for how to compute a school district’s general fund budget:
Many cite the base aid first factor but ignore the second factor, adjusted/weighted enrollment. The two factors must be multiplied together to get the total budget figure for a school district.
The Adjusted/Weighted Enrollment factor is a bit complicated and difficult to comprehend.
Here’s what that Adjusted / Weighted Enrollment factor looked like in 2017:
So you think you understand Kansas School Finance?, Kathy Johnson, Executive Director of Finance, USD 497 Lawrence Public Schools. 2017. 61 slides.