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2012 Spending Data For All Kansas School Districts In One Place
Topline data for all 286 public school districts are now searchable and downloadable
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October 5, 2012 - Wichita - In 2012, state spending on public schools increased by $195,247,583, a 3.5 percent increase over the previous year. This data was posted to KansasOpenGov.Org, a government transparency site, earlier today, and was compiled from the "Budget At a Glance" document available through the Kansas Department of Education. KansasOpenGov.Org is a project of Kansas Policy Institute and all of the data available on the site reflects official government records, much of it obtained via open records requests.
"Kansans are no longer forced to navigate through multiple documents in order to compare the spending of Kansas school districts," said KPI president Dave Trabert. "All of the data is in one place and fully searchable."
Spending data in the database is broken down based on the categories available in the "Budget At a Glance" document housed at the KSDE website. The categories listed are titled Instruction, Capital, Debt, and Other Current. Other Current is a compilation of the following spending categories; Student and Instructional Support, General Administration, School Administration, Operations and Maintenance, and Other Costs.
The 3.5 percent increase in total spending from 2011 to 2012 includes increases in all four of categories listed above. Instruction spending increased by $85,591,054, Other Current by $58,508,054, and Debt spending by $11,231,381. Capital expenditures increased by 23.7 percent for a total increase of $39,916,386 between 2011 and 2012.
Trabert concluded, "Whether a 23.7 percent increase in capital expenditures is a good use of taxpayer money or not should be left up to Kansas taxpayers. Our role is the make that information more accessible and we will continue to make this sort of data available at KansasOpenGov.Org."
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Kansas Policy Institute is an independent think-tank that advocates for free market solutions and the protection of personal freedom for all Kansans. Our work centers on state and local economic policy with primary emphasis on education, fiscal policy and health care. We empower citizens, legislators and other government officials with objective research and creative ideas to promote a low-tax, pro-growth environment that preserves the ability of governments to provide high quality services. To speak with Kansas Policy Institute, please contact James Franko at (316) 634-0218.
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