More Than a Check: Redistributing donations won’t solve inequality across SMSD schools

Everyone loves a good Robin Hood story — take from the rich and give to the poor. But in the Shawnee Mission School District, redistributing donations doesn’t restore balance, it only moves money around without considering the bigger picture.

In SMSD, private donations are the biggest contributor to inequality in funding. Over the past three years, SM East’s feeder schools have received $2.15 million in private donations, much of it from community fundraisers and local families. That money paid for new textbooks, four private study pods and even classroom aides.

Meanwhile, the other four SMSD high schools received a combined $704,000.

That’s not loose change. It’s a $1.4 million difference.

It may seem like the obvious solution is to redistribute donations evenly among the five high schools and their feeder schools. Easy, right?

Wrong.

Redistributing donations doesn’t actually fix the problem — it’s just a band-aid for the much larger issue: public schools shouldn’t need to rely on private donations to fill funding gaps in the first place.

But instead of asking why schools are so desperate for outside funding, the district has formed a fairness-fighting task force: three board members with a mission to “protect equity” and “community spirit” by investigating private donation policies. But that’s trying to treat a symptom without addressing the root cause.

Yesterday, the board of education reviewed a draft of a policy preventing private donations from funding staff positions at a workshop meeting. But the district has been investigating private funding since June 2024 — at this rate, school funding will be equal in no less than 20 years.

Taking money from East to give to the other SMSD schools sounds great on paper, but it risks shrinking total funding district-wide. Don’t bring down East to bring up other schools — that doesn’t help East or North or Northwest or South or West.

Donations are personal. Families donate because they want to support their child’s school and their community. If those donations were suddenly going to other schools instead, people might limit their donations or cut contributions altogether.

The fact that East’s feeder schools receive 75% of total district donations does affect student outcomes. It’s not a coincidence that East students who consistently score higher on standardized tests have more resources. In 2022, East’s average ACT score was 23.5, while the other four high schools had average scores between 19.3 and 21.5, according to the Johnson County Post. A four-point difference can change a student’s college options, scholarship opportunities and future.

Part of this scoring gap can be attributed to the median household income in the East area being, according to United States Zip Codes, $83,860, compared to $57,929 for SM West. Families in the East area are more likely to afford private tutoring and test prep.

Nobody’s saying unequal funding isn’t a problem. It’s not fair that some students get fresh new books and study pods while others are reusing textbooks. But that’s not East’s or donating parents’ fault. It’s the system’s.

SMSD schools receive financing through public funding, local property taxes and mostly per-pupil state funding. But, according to the Kansas Association of School Boards, when adjusted for inflation, the total per-pupil funding is only slightly higher than in 2009. Just “keeping up with inflation” isn’t enough when considering labor costs, building costs and school programs.

On top of that, Kansas’s per-pupil funding is over 10% below the U.S. average as of 2023, according to the Kansas Association of School Boards. Our funding is increasing at a slower rate than the national average.

No wonder East relies on private donations to pay for staff positions and educational materials.

But trying to redistribute money is nothing more than a distraction. Real fairness won’t come from just taking money from one school to give to another — it’ll come when we stop blaming private donations for the cracks in the system of public school funding.

As a community, we should push for fairer funding from the state. That means we need to be asking lawmakers to increase funding and ensure it’s being spent the right way — not just to meet inflation, but to match the real costs of running a 21st-century public school. Parents, students and teachers need to speak up at board meetings and contact Kansas representatives. A donation policy isn’t the answer to equity — real equity has to be fought for through laws, budgets and real action.

Until then, let’s stop pretending this game of Robin Hood solves anything — and start fixing the broken system that made him necessary.