Chapter 16: Kansas

The Kansas Legislature began providing funding for public schools in 1937 when it established aid for elementary schools.³ Secondary schools were aided beginning in 1955.⁴ Additional emergency aid was added in 1959.⁵ Sweeping school consolidation occurred beginning in 1963, dramatically reducing the state’s approximately 2,800 school districts to only 311 by 1969.⁶ Legislative enactment of the state’s first true school finance formula likewise followed in this same time-frame, known as the School Foundation Act (SFA) of 1965.⁷ This formula broke conceptual ground in Kansas by creating a mindset supporting general state aid. Unique features were an adjustment per school district for teacher training and experience, along with a pupil-teacher ratio multiplier tied to each district’s position relative to the state average. These elements combined to establish a state duty to fund schools and acknowledged the need to better equalize educational opportunity among districts.