Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1995
Abstract
In May of 1992 the Kansas state legislature approved and Governor Joan Finney signed into law a new school finance formula that adversely affected several southwest Kansas counties. The new bill provided for a blanket mill levy of 32 mills ($32 in taxes for every $1000 assessed valuation) to be spread across the state. It also restricted funding to a maximum of $3600 per student. The effects in the southwest were drastic. Many districts there, accustomed to setting their own tax rates and to retaining all monies collected, spent upward of $5000 per student on tax levies below 20 mills. With the new formula, taxes collected from the 32 mills in excess of the $3600 per-student limit would have to be released to the state for disbursement. Alarmed southwest Kansans feared that local teachers would lose their jobs, courses would be cut, and some schools might be forced to close. It was apparent that the state legislature in far away Topeka had passed a measure that threatened the region.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly 15:4 (Fall 1995). Copyright © 1995 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.