“Dollars in the classroom?”

Kansas Association of School Boards

January, 2015

What is meant by “dollars in the classroom?”

It probably varies depending on who is using the term, but state’s “policy goal” of spending 65 percent of funding “in the classroom” uses the federal definition of “instruction.” All states and school districts are supposed to use the same basic budget expenditure categories and definitions.

What is included in the definition of “instruction?”

According to KSDE documents, instruction includes the activities dealing directly with the interaction between teachers and students. It also includes athletics and activities.

Is everything not included under instruction “administration?”

No. Expenditures not included in instruction include the following:

• Student Support - Attendance and social work services, substance abuse, guidance services, health services (nurses), psychology, speech pathology, and audiology.
• Instruction Support - Library media services, instruction related technology, and assessment of students.
• General Administration - Board of education staff, board secretary/clerk staff, staff relations and negotiations staff, the superintendent's staff, assistant superintendents, area directors, and the superintendent; operational expenses of the central office.
• School Administration - Office of the principal (including vice principals and other assistants), full-time department chairpersons and the principal.
• Central Services - Business officials, human resources, planning, and administrative information technology.
• Operation and Maintenance of Plant - Maintenance of buildings and grounds, repairing equipment, utilities, building insurance and security staff.
• Student Transportation - As provided by state and federal law, includes trips between home and school, and trips to and from school activities.
• Food Services - Preparing and serving regular and incidental meals, lunches, or snacks in connection with school activities and food delivery.
• Community Services - Services to students, staff or other community participants, such a community swimming pool, a recreation program, etc.

How much of Kansas school funding goes to instruction?

It depends whether you look at “current expenditures” which exclude building and equipment costs and paying debt, or total revenues or expenditures.

For last school year, KSDE reports the following allocation of current operating expenditures: instruction: 61.4 percent; student support: 5.0 percent; instructional teacher support: 4.0 percent; operation and maintenance: 9.8 percent; transportation: 4.1 percent; food service: 4.9 percent.  Administrative costs for general administration is 2.4 percent, school administration 4.8 percent and other central support services 2.5 percent.

If capital building costs and debt service are included, instructional expenditures are 50.8 percent of total expenditures.

How does Kansas compare to other states?

According to federal reports (which differ slightly from state reports), Kansas schools spent 62 percent of current spending on instruction, the 9th highest in the nation, up from 28th in 2005.  Kansas schools spent 52.3 percent of total revenue on instruction, ranking 17th in the nation, up from 30th in 2005.

Kansas schools ranked higher in the percent of spending instruction than in the total amount of spending.  In 2012, Kansas ranked 27th in total revenue per pupil and 28th in current spending per pupil.

Do states that spend a higher percent of their budget on instruction get better results?

States that spend more total dollars on instruction are more likely to have higher student achievement.  However, there is almost no correlation between the percentage of school funding spent on instruction and achievement.

In fact some of the highest achieving states rank among the lowest in the share of dollars going to instruction.

This fact indicates that in effective school systems, all money is used to support student learning in the classroom, while in less effective systems, spending more on instruction doesn’t lead to better results.

How effective is the Kansas public school system compared to other states?

As noted Kansas per pupil spending is per pupil spending is about at the national average. Kansas is also similar to the national average in its percentage of at-risk, low income students.  However, Kansas ranks between 5th and 15th on measures of achievement, including national reading and math tests, graduation rates, preparation for college and adult educational attainment.