Several area School Districts recently raised mill levies for increased funding. We chose to look at Olathe USD 233 as the School District is some what contained as the City of Olathe and we then measured changes from years 2000 to 2008. Here is what we found.
Estimated Census population increased from 93,880 to 120,094 or 28.8%
Full Time Enrollment increased from 20,828 to 26,894 or 29.1%
Hispanic Population increased from 5,060 to 9,931 or 96.24%
‘Bilingual Education Funding’ increased from $531,770 to $2,696,500 or 407%
(NOTE: Census numbers are only as accurate as those that reported.)
That brought us to el ELL (The English Language Learners). “In fact, one Kansas City school district has reported a 500 percent increase in its English learner population over the past three years. Area schools that have not historically served large numbers of English language learners are therefore facing the challenge of providing instruction for a more linguistically and culturally diverse student group.” http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3112
Kansas State Policy on the Education of ELL Students
In response to both federal mandate and local demand, the Kansas State Legislature passed the Kansas Bilingual Education Act (KSA–72-9501 to 72-9510) in 1992. In the Act, the Legislature provided an addendum to the State education funding formula, which created the Bilingual Education Fund (now called ESOL/Bilingual). Under the new funding formula, an additional 20% of the State’s annual per-pupil allocation would be provided to local school districts for each full-time-equivalent (FTE) student who was enrolled in a program of ESOL or Bilingual Education (KSDE, 1998). The Act also charged KSDE with the responsibility of creating regulations for the administration of the act, including the development of policies and guidelines for the dispersion of these funds, which were to cover teacher education, training, and instructional improvement, as KSDE deemed best. http://www.emporia.edu/emlj/modlan/esl/lawandpolicies.doc
In 2002-2003, over 100 districts (more than one third of the 304 districts in Kansas), reported enrolling at least one ELL student. Furthermore, the increase in the number of native languages each subsequent year has also proven to be a trend. By the 2002-2003 school year there were over 100 native languages spoken by the ELL students in the state (KSDE, 2002). http://www.emporia.edu/emlj/modlan/esl/lawandpolicies.doc
NOlathe Observation: To educate those here illegally we build more schools, hire more staff, hire more educators, educate the educators to be bilingual, fund more KPERS, provide two free meals daily and educate them in their native language from age 3 to 21. We have read estimates that as many as 30% state wide students are Spanish speakers.
NOlathe Observation: For the 2007-2008 school year, Olathe USD 233 reported 26,894 FTE (Full Time Equiv). The Kansas Dept of Education funded between 24,070 and 24,751 (two documents showed two numbers) or 2,143 less than USD 233 reported. At $12,192 per pupil results in a difference of $26,127,456. Other years show similar differences. We tried it in Spanish and got the same results. Or is there another set of books and who audits?
Sources: http://www.ksde.org/Portals/0/School%20Finance/data_warehouse/total_expenditures/d0233exp.pdf
http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1813 http://www.olathe.k12.ks.us/
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en
Ken Dunwoody GOD
Henpecked Acres One Nation
14850 W. 159th St.
Olathe, Ks. 66062
(913)768-1603
kdunwoody2@aol.com www.NOlathe.com http://NOlathe.net
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