Shinking state SEEK funding

This school year, districts will receive $33 million less in base SEEK funding from the state than they received last year, dropping from $2,282 million to $2,249 million.

The total guaranteed amount will decline just one million. That change is driven by student counts, and although average daily attendance low-income enrollment have gone up, but students with disabilities have gone down more than enough to offset that growth.

The crucial thing, though, is that the state does not pay the full guarantee.

The state's share will go down because the local share will go up by $33 million. The local share is calculated as 30¢ for each $1,000 in taxable property, and local property values have grown statewide.

As a result, even though the state guaranteed the same amount per pupil, the amount it pays out will go down.

The table below uses figures from two KDE SEEK Forecast Summaries available here. For 2008-09, the revised final version is dated May 12, 2009. For 2009-10, the most recent version is dated July 10, 2009. The chart below includes numbers from both of those projections. It also includes what the state originally planned to provide for 2009-10 under the budget passed last year that would have used a larger guaranteed amount per pupil.