Governor Sam Brownback announced Friday the formation of the Governor’s School Efficiency Task Force to examine education spending and to develop guidelines on how to get more funding into classrooms where teachers teach and students learn.

A Kansas State Board of Education member since 2003, Ken Willard of Hutchinson, will chair the task force. Willard served on the USD 309 Nickerson School Board from 1997-2002 and retired last year after a 38-year career in the insurance industry.

Currently only 15 of the 286 school districts in Kansas adhere to state law that requires at least 65% of funds provided by the state to school districts are to be spent in the classroom or for instruction.

More than half of total state spending is directed towards K-12 education. Since 2000, Kansas has increased K-12 education spending by nearly $1 billion dollars while the number of K-12 students has remained almost the same.

In Governor Brownback’s Road Map for Kansas, two of his five goals are directly impacted by quality of our education system:

Increase the percentage of high school graduates who are career or college ready.

Increase the percentage of 4th graders who can read at grade level.