Hutchinson News
February 3, 2006

Kansas Bilingual Ed Woes are Diverse
Proposals Seek to Make Funding More Fair for Programs Across State

By CHRIS GREEN

TOPEKA - School districts face various challenges in teaching non-English speakers across Kansas.

There's only one funding mechanism, though, that controls how much state money is targeted for that education.

The House Select Committee on School Finance heard testimony Wednesday on proposed changes to the bilingual education budget that might hurt some schools by under-funding their expenses. At the same time, it could help others.

In the Wichita school district, officials must deal with a mobile student population that speaks 64 different languages or dialects, lobbyist Diane Gjerstad said.

Despite those needs, Wichita received funding for only 2,923.5 full-time equivalent students in 2004-05, despite serving more than 5,300 individuals.

A legislative study has revealed bilingual education isn't funded equitably or fully. While Wichita received $423 per student served, other districts received as much as $647 or as little as $52 a student.

"The current funding formula is a very poor measure," of what it takes to fund bilingual education, Gjerstad said.

As a result, a school cost study by the Legislature's post audit division recommends funding schools for each student they serve, rather than how many contact hours a "bilingual endorsed" teacher has with students.

But auditors also reduced the percentage of funding schools receive per student, noting that additional costs might be made up through extra money for at-risk students - a common category for bilingual students to fall into.

That's prompted some lawmakers to suggest that the state combine poverty and bilingual funding into one effort.

However, that would hurt Buhler schools, said Janet Sims, who coordinates the district's English-language instruction. Sims said bilingual student numbers in Buhler have grown from five to 24 students in the last three years - but only a third of them would qualify for at-risk funding.

Those students speak 10 different languages, including Creole, Hindi, Russian and Mandarin Chinese, Sims said, and most of them are here to stay.

"These are not migrant people," Sims said. "These are not people that are going to move away."

Under the study's recommendations, other districts face the possibility of absorbing costs that the state chose to cover this past year, Kansas National Education Association lobbyist Mark Desetti said.

Although some districts could gain millions more in at-risk funding, that money can't be used directly for second-language education.

"You're now going below what they're spending," Desetti said of the changes.

Some lawmakers suggested the state universities could do a better of job of turning out qualified bilingual teachers. Others expressed concern about districts failing to identify and serve bilingual students.

One legislator also worried there was too much focus on the issue.

"Sometimes the just-average kids are getting ignored," Rep. Willa DeCastro, R-Wichita, said.