Kansas Reporter, the state capital news bureau operated by Kansas Policy Institute, sponsored this survey because anecdotal experience indicated there is tremendous confusion over the amount of funding schools actually receive and how current funding levels compare to prior years. It is impossible to get reliable feedback on taxpayer willingness to pay higher taxes without first knowing whether taxpayers have an accurate understanding of school funding. If taxpayers are not adequately informed, questions such as “would you support higher taxes to prevent further cuts to schools” contain a built-in bias of each participant’s perception of current funding. Accordingly, first a baseline of public perception on school funding was established, and then survey responders were asked if they would be personally willing to pay higher taxes to give more money to schools under several funding scenarios.

Three key findings jumped out from the data:

1. Kansans are grossly misinformed about school funding. Schools are receiving much more money per-pupil than assumed by most Kansans; most Kansans also believe that both State aid and Total aid are down or flat compared to five years ago but both categories have double-digit increases.

2. Kansans are overwhelmingly opposed to paying higher taxes to give more money to schools under current conditions. When not prompted with leading questions about avoiding further cuts to schools but simply asked if they would be personally willing to pay higher taxes based on several school funding scenarios, they rejected tax increases by margins of 39 to 70 points.

3. While one might expect those with children in school to be better informed about school funding, they are actually less informed than those with no children in school. They are also strongly opposed to paying higher taxes to give schools more money; they are more likely to say they would be willing to pay more if spending was down or the same as five years ago but very unwilling to pay if total aid is up.

Survey Introduction
The Introduction contains the survey objectives and explains the methodology.

Managerial Summary
Analysis of the responses to each question, prepared by The Research Partnership staff. 

Participant Comments  
Survey participants were asked if they would like to make any comments regarding school funding in Kansas. 333 people had something to say on the subject.

Facts About School Spending

State Spending by Category   
FY 2010 estimated spending, showing that 53% of general fund spending goes to K-12 education.

Per-Pupil Spending Trend 
Total spending for each year (2005 – 2010), showing that schools budgeted an 11% increase for 2010 but will actually spend 3.43% less. A large amount of budget cuts are therefore eliminating their plans to spend more money this year.

Aid Per-Pupil
Comparison of total aid and each component (State, Federal and Local) between 2005 and 2010.