| The purpose of this study was to examine selected impacts of the 1992 School District Finance and Quality Performance Accreditation Act (SDFQPA) on representative Kansas school districts from 1993 through 2001. The sample for this study included 124 Kansas school districts. The districts were chosen according to their assessed valuation per pupil in 1992–93 and grouped according to decile analysis of poor, middle, and wealthy districts. The design resulted in 31 school districts in four decile groupings of Deciles 1, 5, 6, and 10. Decile 1 school districts were considered poor; Deciles 5 and 6 school districts were considered middle-wealth districts; and districts in Decile 10 were considered wealthy. Additionally, five school districts from each decile group, for a total of 20 districts, were randomly selected to conduct personal telephone interviews in order to gain richer and deeper information about the financial and educational impact of SDFQPA over Fiscal Years 1993–2001.; Variables examined in the quantitative analysis of the study included the following components of the school district finance formula: general fund amounts, supplemental general fund amounts (local option budget), capital outlay fund amounts, and bond and interest fund amounts. Other variables examined included: number of certified employees, average teacher salaries, graduation rates, dropout rates, and state assessment results in mathematics and reading. Surveys were mailed to the 124 school districts to gather contextual information about the specific variables and also to gather information not available from the data. Survey information included the following: the construction or remodeling of facilities, the closing or combing of schools, course offerings at the secondary level, and teacher morale. Telephone interviews were conducted with the randomly selected districts to verify and clarify the survey data.; Results of this study indicated that implementation of SDFQPA in 1992–93 has had little, if any, negative impact on those school districts considered poor, middle, or wealthy. Little has changed in the representative school districts in terms of the variables examined for this study. SDFQPA does appear to have accomplished its mission of assuring more wealth-neutral equal educational opportunity for all Kansas school children in terms of equality of dollars with the base state aid amount and the uniform mill levy, which benefits taxpayers statewide. Educationally, however, very little change has taken place in either poor, middle, or wealthy school districts. Despite the equalizing fiscal side of SDFQPA, where a student lives in Kansas continues to determine the nature of education received by a child. |
