Kan. Legislators Tangle Over Local-Option School Budgets

With their legislative session drawing to a close, Kansas lawmakers are under the gun to decide whether the state should have sole responsibility for school finance, or if individual districts should retain the ability to determine a portion of their own funding.

At issue in Topeka--for the second consecutive year--are so-called local-option budgets authorized in the state's 1992 School Finance Act. The budgets allow the state's 304 school districts to supplement their state-authorized per-pupil allotment by up to 25 percent of the base amount--if local taxpayers consent to an increase in property taxes.

Only half of the state's districts have been able to pass such measures. Nevertheless, this school year, local-option funding accounted for some $239 million of $2.2 billion...