Kansas school efficiency task force hears from wrong districts

Last week two Kansas school superintendents told a school efficiency task force that they’re doing all they can to be efficient. But after looking at these two districts, one wonders why these superintendents were chosen to advise and testify.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reported: “Gov. Sam Brownback’s school efficiency task force met for the second time Friday and heard testimony from school administrators who assured the panel their districts work diligently to save taxpayer money.”

The Associated Press reported: “The leaders of two Kansas school districts say educators are doing all they can to teach efficiently.”

The testifying superintendents were Gary Sechrist of Lyons Unified School District 405, and Beverly Mortimer of Concordia USD 333. These are medium-size districts, with full-time equivalent enrollments of 773 and 1,050 in 2011 — 2012.

The first thing we might notice is that these school districts are spending a lot of money. According to the Kansas State Department of Education, Concordia spent $16,866 per pupil in the most recent school year. Lyons spent $17,805. The statewide average was $12,656 per pupil.

When we look at school districts of similar size, we have to wonder why these two districts were selected to provide testimony on operating schools efficiently. As can see in the following chart which plots district size versus per-pupil spending, Concordia and Lyons (shown as large red dots) are outliers from the trend — in the wrong direction, and by large amounts.

What insight do these two superintendents have? Why didn’t the task force invite superintendents from districts whose spending lies below the trend?

Following are charts of per pupil spending for these two districts.