Senate Education Committee hears overview of Kansas school finance formula

The Senate Education Committee on an unspecified date heard an overview of Kansas’ school finance formula from Matthew Willis, senior research analyst with the Kansas Legislative Research Department (KLRD), who outlined how State Foundation Aid, enrollment “weightings,” local option budgets and equalization interact to determine school funding.

The presentation matters because the State Foundation Aid portion of the formula — which funds a large share of state general fund support to K‑12 schools — is scheduled to sunset at the end of 2027, and committee members pressed for district-level figures and clarifications about how local levies and state equalization affect districts differently.

Willis told the committee that the formula begins by calculating a district’s total adjusted full‑time‑equivalent (FTE) student count, including preschool at‑risk FTEs, and then applies a series of weightings — for at‑risk students, high‑density at‑risk, bilingual students, low‑enrollment or high‑enrollment districts, transportation, career and technical education (CTE), special education, and others — to produce a weighted FTE. "State Foundation Aid, which is when we talk about the school finance formula sunsetting, it is primarily the State Foundation Aid portion that is sunsetting, at the end of 2027," Willis said.

That weighte…