Just the facts, please...

Perhaps you also read the column by Leonard Pitts in the Wichita Eagle this morning. His premise was that facts don’t seem to matter as much anymore in dealing with issues. I am hoping that this is not a sign of the times. Recently, our school district, and all others throughout the state, has been characterized as spending over $13,000 per pupil. This “fact” comes about as the result of totaling all of our funds together and then dividing by our full time pupil equivalent to get a cost per pupil. However, such a figure includes flow through money for special education since we are the sponsoring district, money from bond and interest payments, and KPERS payments which only flow through the district.

To characterize the aid for each student in this way seems both disingenuous and dishonest. The money dedicated to students, their education and support services, is generally found in two operational funds, the general fund and in the supplemental general fund. We can’t seem to have a meaningful dialogue with our legislators or other critics of public schools because we can’t agree on the facts. Maybe in the coming weeks as we attempt to deal more directly with our current financial dilemma, we can agree on the ground rules and find some common ground from which to discuss where we go from here. That will depend on the facts, won’t it?