On April 8, Kansas City Public Schools will ask voters to approve $474 million in higher property taxes to allow the district to update classrooms, build new schools and fund long-standing maintenance needs.
KCPS predicts that for a $474 million bond, someone with a home valued at $200,000 would pay an additional $231.80 per year in property taxes. A commercial property with the same value would pay an additional $390.40 per year.
The district hasn’t successfully passed a bond measure in nearly six decades, and KCPS Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Collier says now is the time to invest in Kansas City’s kids.
“What we're talking about is really giving hope to our children, giving hope and helping them see we believe in them and that there is a future for them,” Collier told KCUR’s Up To Date.
The Missouri State Board of Education voted in 2000 to withdraw KCPS’s accreditation status for failing to meet the state’s academic standards, and was the first time in the country that a state stripped a school district of its accreditation.
It took KCPS more than two decades to fully regain accreditation, and Collier says the district has done the hard work over the last several years to regain the support of the community, pointing to the 89% graduation rate.
“We need this support from our community in order to continue the work that we've started,” she says.
The bond proposal also devotes $50 million to charter schools, spread across nine schools.
Learn more about the April 8 Kansas City Public Schools bond vote here.
- Dr. Jennifer Collier, superintendent of Kansas City Public Schools
