A Kansas Senate committee has endorsed cutting aid to public schools and higher education spending to help balance the state's current budget.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee approved a budget-cutting bill Tuesday on a 9-4 vote. The votes against it came from the panel's three Democrats and moderate Republican Sen. Vicki Schmidt, of Topeka.
The bill trims $154 million in spending from the current budget and almost all of it comes from education funding.
Public schools would lose $128 million. State universities and the Kansas Board of Regents would lose nearly $23 million.
See possible education cuts below:
The committee also approved a one-year reduction in contributions to public employee pensions and some internal government borrowing to help close a projected $320 million shortfall in the budget for the fiscal year ending June 30.
Zoe Newton, Chair of the Kansas Board of Regents, issued a statement about proposed cuts to higher education.
“While we are grateful for the state’s historic support, it is disappointing to see this legislative committee’s recommendation. Given that state support has eroded so much that it now accounts for 12 percent of the state’s budget, attempting to balance the state’s budget on the back of public higher education is misguided," said Newton.
David Smith, Communications Director at Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools, also expressed his concern about the planned $128 million in cuts to public education across Kansas.
“Obviously, any cuts to K-12 education [after they put the block grants (spending freeze) in place with the PROMISE that there would be no cuts to education] would be devastating, not just to us, but to districts across the state. It is early, so we are trying not to react, and to just let the process play out,” Smith said.
A lawyer representing four Kansas school districts suing the state has criticized a legislative proposal to cut education funding by this summer.
Attorney John Robb said Tuesday that the measure endorsed by the Senate Ways and Means Committee is "tremendously ill-advised."
Robb said: "That's moving the ball the wrong way down the field."
The Dodge City, Hutchinson, Wichita and Kansas City, Kansas, districts sued the state in 2010.
The Kansas Supreme Court is expect to rule soon on whether the state's total spending fulfills lawmakers' duty under the state constitution to finance a suitable education for every child. The state is spending about $4.1 billion a year, or $8,900 per student.
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Cynthia Newsome can be reached at Cynthia.Newsome@kshb.com.
