Do schools want more than we can afford?

I mentioned a few days ago that the US Census Bureau just released the latest edition of its Public Education Finances report, this time for the 2008-09 school term. It didn’t take long for a newspaper to use the new data release to start fussing that “Kentucky lags in education funding.”

Too bad the newspaper didn’t check out more information from the Census Bureau’s report, including the interesting information in Table 12. In that table, the Census Bureau relates each state’s education spending to the state’s personal income levels. In other words, Table 12 ranks state education spending against the state’s citizens’ ability to pay.

Here are some highlights:


With 50 states plus Washington, DC included in the table, it is clear that once Kentuckians’ ability to pay is considered, we are doing an above average job of funding our schools.

What makes this more remarkable is that Kentucky’s relatively low per capita income means our citizens have fewer disposable dollars available to throw at education in the first place.

Clearly, once the average Kentuckian’s ability to pay for education is considered, it becomes clear that when Kentucky’s educators just whine for more money, they are turning a calloused eye on this state’s citizens’ ability to provide more.

Ghost-ly Statistics revisited

The year was 2005. The ‘KERA Amen Chorus’ was hot with accusations that Kentuckians were education cheapskates. That charge was based on a Governing Magazine study that said Kentucky ranked last in the nation for education spending. Governing said their ranking was based on data from the US Census Bureau. It looked damning.

But, the Bluegrass Institute thought the numbers looked wrong. We talked to the real experts at Census and found out that Governing Magazine indeed used the wrong Census data file to do its ranking. We found out the ‘right stuff’ from Census is contained in an annually released document titled “Public Education Finances.”

Governing’s problem: Kentucky uses unusual education funding policies that make it tricky to do apples-to-apples comparisons to education funding elsewhere. Governing used a Census file that was based on an incomplete, school district level picture of spending. That file totally omitted Kentucky’s large expenditures on teacher health care and teacher retirement, which are funded at the state level rather than the district level in the Bluegrass State. The charge we were dead last was based on ‘Ghost-ly Statistics.’

Flash forward to the present. A few days ago, the US Census Bureau released Public Education Finances 2009.

It is interesting to compare the total amounts Table 1 in the Census report says we spent on education in 2008-09 to the amounts that come from the Kentucky Department of Education’s own Revenue and Expenditures Report.


As you can see, there is a considerable difference. This in general is due to the amount we pay for teacher retirement and health care.

Those big ticket costs are often omitted from discussions about how much the taxpayer spends on education in Kentucky, turning these large dollar amounts into “Ghost-ly Statistics.”

But, Mr. and Ms. Taxpayer, your wallet knows – those big dollars are no ghosts.

Government not the only state entity with a spending problem

The Family Foundation of Kentucky is calling for both a moratorium on -- and an investigation by the attorney general of -- rising tuition prices at Kentucky's public universities.

A study by the foundation last year showed that colleges and universities have failed to control costs and have been increasing tuition at rates that far outstrip median household incomes. As of 2009, the average college graduate had incurred student debt of over $24,000.

“The state’s universities are refusing to run their institutions efficiently and they’re passing the cost of that failure on to students, families and taxpayers,” said Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst with The Family Foundation of Kentucky.

The University of Louisville (6 percent), University of Kentucky (6 percent) and Eastern Kentucky University (5 percent) have all raised tuition during the past month. No one in Frankfort seems to be paying attention. (Hmmmm. We wonder if the state auditor might begin paying as much attention to public universities as she has been to for-profit colleges recently.)

"When gas stations in Jefferson County dramatically increased their prices several years ago, the Attorney General launched an investigation because of the effect on the public," Cothran said. "Universities are increasing their prices at almost three times the rate of inflation. Where are the investigations?"

Where, indeed?

How much is enough?

Here's just another reason why Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, is right in wanting to shut down the U.S. Department of Education: Since 2000, the department's budget has increased by 57 percent -- and that's adjusted for inflation!

KY education dollars are not spent where you think!

The brighter the research shines, the darker the hole of wasteful spending in Kentucky’s public schools becomes. Half of all education spending – by far the largest single item in the state budget’s General Fund – is spent for unnecessary personnel, unproven programs and unwelcomed experiments. When will this end?

New school district check registers available

By way of Operation: Open Records 2010 we have posted some new school district check registers.  These check registers are available on our sortable database where you can search for expenses in fiscal year 2010 by date, amount, description of expense, etc...

Recently added:

• Laurel County Schools
• Whitley County Schools
• Warren County Schools

Glance through these expenses, it is your tax money anyway.  This is one expense in the Laurel County Schools check register I found that I have questions about...

It could be completely legitimate but when I see numbers like this spent at a hotel by a school district spread out over the course of a year, I think we owe it to ourselves to keep an eye on it.  I mean come on, $16,300.43 is a lot of money in hotels especially when you consider that this is just one of the hotels on the list.  There are others in the check register.

What do you think?

Gov. Beshear invites Kentuckians to TEK Talk forums

From the Governor’s news release:

FRANKFORT, Ky.– In an effort to boost support of public education in the Commonwealth, Governor Steve Beshear and First Lady Jane Beshear will host TEK Talk community forums on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010. Kentuckians are invited to gather at 10 locations across the state to discuss Transforming Education in Kentucky (TEK). Gov. Beshear created the TEK initiative last fall to focus current education programs toward the unified goal of better preparing Kentucky students for success in the 21st century.

“The world has dramatically changed since the education reforms of 1990,” said Gov. Beshear. “Today, I’m calling on our communities to recommit new energy and provide new input for innovative strategies that will ensure the future of our children.”

Gov. Beshear is working in partnership with the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet, the Kentucky Department of Education, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE), the Prichard Committee, the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, NewCities Institute and Kentucky Educational Television to provide this opportunity for the public to share its concerns and ideas.


Check the news release link above for the locations and contact phone numbers for the 10 regional discussion locations. Those discussions start at 7 PM Eastern Daylight Time/6PM Central Time.

If you can’t make it to one of the regional locations, KET will broadcast a summary of the event at 8 PM Eastern/7PM Central Time on the 17th. There will be repeat broadcasts by KET at later dates, per the news release, and it will be live streamed and then available in web accessible archives, as well.

We'll set up blog items after the event where you can comment on your impressions.

4 ways to spend money

Milton Friedman had a true gift for explaining basic economic ideas so that anyone could understand them. Here is Friedman discussing the four ways to spend money (and drawing a comparison to public education spending).



The Bluegrass Institute is hosting a "What would Friedman do?" lecture at the University of Louisville. You won't want to miss this! You can learn more details here.