How has school funding changed compared to inflation and other measures? 

In a previous post, I shared the first part of a recent conversation with a long-time friend who often brings me questions about public education. We started by discussing what has happened to public school enrollment over the past 30 years and how that compares to the number of teachers and other staff.  

“You've explained that school districts have added a lot of people and some reasons why," said my friend. “How has that affected total spending? Has funding per pupil increased more than inflation?”  

“The simple answer is yes,” I said. “But there are a couple of things to remember when comparing school funding to inflation.”  

“First, if we compare school funding to the consumer price index as a measure of inflation, remember that’s based on a market basket of consumer goods and services. But school districts aren’t paying for the same consumer goods and services like milk, bread, gas, or rent. School districts spend nearly 80 percent of their budget on salaries and benefits for their employees or contracting for services with businesses that have to pay for their employees’ salaries and benefits, and about 10 percent on debt service, which is basically paying for school building construction. Both employment costs and construction costs have increased more than the regular CPI. That means schools need to spend more than inflation to keep pace with “average” labor and construction costs.”  

Fact Check: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which calculates the consumer price index, also provides an “employment cost index” and a “school construction cost index” to measure the average cost of labor and new school buildings. Since 1990, the average annual increase in the CPI has been 2.65 percent, while the U.S. employment cost index has averaged a 3.1 percent increase. The school construction cost index has more than doubled since it was started in 2005.  

“Second, remember that inflation is an attempt to track the change in the price of the same loaf of bread or gallon of gas,” I said. “But by adding the new positions described above, school districts aren't simply providing the same services as in the past: they are providing more special services, more early childhood, and career tech programs, transportation more students, providing more security efforts and supporting more technology.  

“Third, it’s important to know that school funding has not increased at the same rate over time. From the mid-1990’s to 2009, total per pupil funding increased more than the consumer price index almost every year, some years by a great deal,” I said. “But starting in 2010, total funding either dropped or was, at best flat compared to inflation until 2018, when the Legislature increased funding under the Gannon school finance lawsuit. This year, when adjusted for inflation, the total per pupil funding is just slightly more than what it the same in 2009. And as described above, just keeping up with inflation doesn’t keep up with labor costs, building costs, and expanding school programs.”  

Fact Check: When adjusted for inflation using the 2022 consumer price index, total Kansas school district spending was just over $5 billion in 1993, rising to $8.1 billion in 2009. That’s over $3 billion more than inflation in 17 years. Funding dropped to $7.6 billion in 2017 when adjusted for inflation. Last year, total spending was $8.3 billion, which means “real” over-inflation funding increased just $200 million in the 13 years from 2009 to 2022, and a significant portion of that funding is temporary COVID aid that will expire over the next several years.  

A KASB analysis of spending over inflation from 1999 to 2020 estimated that 33 percent of additional funding was for additional staff, 21 percent was increased KPERS contributions to address the long-term unfunded liability of the retirement system, 20 percent was to keep salaries on current employees competitive, and 25 percent was for higher construction costs and enhancing school facilities.  

With that discussion of funding, we took a break before diving into the final topic: educational outcomes or results.