In a plan that brings to mind the Hunger Games, Kansas legislators are planning to carve the state up into super-districts, eliminating administration state wide to boil down to 12 or 7 school districts to serve the state.

http://ksn.com/...

“Maybe,” says Republican representative Steven Brunk of Wichita. “And we agree to that the schools are the lifeblood of some of those communities, and nobody wants to see that changed. But… we have what I call clunky government. Very clunky government. We are still living in the 1960’s administratively. And we can do better and we should.” Brunk says lawmakers may consider several school changes to save money. Some of the changes include consolidation certain functions of schools, like consolidating the school districts from nearly 300, down to seven. “There are seven service centers in the state of Kansas that perform ordering tasks and perform other functions,” says Brunk. “We could have seven school districts and still have schools maintain their own schools where they are.”

Brunk, who complains about our relegation to the 1960s - an era when Kansas was forced to integrate schools under Brown V Board of Education, offers a new plan. The republican plan for 2015: reduce administration staff state wide and to carve administrative duties down to seven 'service centers'.

Doing so, Brunk suggests would eliminate a lot of overhead by eliminating a large number of jobs, and of course, put administrative duties further out of reach of most citizens.



“I don’t think they will get to the numbers they think, by consolidation,” says Ward. “And there is another question to consider. Do we want USD 259 to be combined with Maize and Goddard and Andover? That’s a highly controversial proposition. Are there some efficiencies we can do with purchasing and combining some of that? Sure. But you’re not going to see the kind of savings that (some) are talking about with those kind of smaller steps.”

Kansas represents square mileage equal to roughly two Illinois. It's a lot of ground to cover in order to address all issues. While some administrative collapse might make sense, Brunk's conclusion that a reduction to 7 for the entire state might be - well, let's just say - desperate. It would also have a tendency to over empower administrators, by putting them in charge of overwhelming numbers of schools. Issues such as oversight, office electability, community oversight as well as procurement of the right names to run these super districts have not yet been addressed, but Kansas Democrats are already speaking up.Rep. Ward addresses key issues, that the combination of school districts into super districts also makes it more difficult to address unique curriculum that reflect some districts reach with multiple language or on premise target programming. Some districts cater to special needs or direct student programming.

Ward would have a point, but Republicans already have the answer - eliminate a lot of that special curriculum.

http://www.koamtv.com/...

The draft of a bill heading for the Kansas House calls for cutting gifted education out of the special education category. It's an idea that's been tossed around before but could stick with Kansas facing financial issues.

The proposal would push gifted education back onto communities, cutting out portions of state funding. These steps also help reduce the cost of education.

Kansas march to look at education differently has been ongoing, and is not a secret.

http://www2.ljworld.com/...

Topeka — Direct state funding for public schools in Kansas is still nearly 15 percent less than it was before the start of the Great Recession, according to a report from the Center for Budget Policies and Priorities, a Washington think tank. That makes Kansas one of 30 states where K-12 education funding still has not fully recovered, and it ranks fifth in the nation in terms of the percentage size of the cuts out of the 47 states examined. Measured in inflation-adjusted dollars, the report said per-pupil spending in Kansas is $861 less than it was in 2008, the fourth-largest cut in the nation.

Now, rather than work to find revenue to cover funding, something the courts have insisted Kansas do , Kansas is looking at a new pattern.

Could there be seven districts? Or twelve? And is this the tribute that Brownback had imagined? We do know that Sam is somehow committed to a new Kansas Strong Military.

http://cjonline.com/...

“We’re moving forward with Republican leadership, we’re moving forward with conservative leadership. We’re moving forward on low taxes; effective, limited government; strong families and a strong military,” Brownback said. “We’re moving forward with a faith in God, a faith in our nation’s motto: In God We Trust. We believe in faith, family and freedom.”

Kansans in many districts are quickly discovering the odds are not in their favor.