By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — With the state of Kansas continuing to collect more in taxes than anticipated, now for 18 straight months, Buhler USD 313 Superintendent Cindy Couchman notes that if legislators want to spend more on education, there's a good place to start.
"We've done some great things with student learning," Couchman said. "Our staff continues to rise to the challenge, no matter what the situation is, no matter what form of learning we throw at them. At some point, we've got to recognize that our staff are underpaid, comparatively."
Couchman believes that is making it harder to hire.
"I have openings right now with just one and two applicants, some without any," Couchman said. "That's a concern. We've got to get quality people and retain quality people in education, or we're going to start seeing the impact on student learning and we'll see it very quickly. This is a concern, I think, across the state of Kansas. One of those things is, we've got to make the field more attractive, financially."
This applies both to those who could retire if they want to stick around and to those deciding what career to go into.
"We have people retiring now that I'm like, can you give us one more year?" Couchman said. "There's nobody graduating in science. There's nobody graduating in math. Actually, you could say that just about in the field right now. The number of graduates versus the number of openings in the state is a huge spread and it's not going to be able to maintain it."
There are policy changes that can be made, including removing the KPERS penalty, so teachers can both 'retire' and continue to teach, but ultimately, teachers have to find those kids who are leaders and help others in their classrooms and direct them into the field.