Earlier this summer, the Post asked our readers what issues you wanted to hear candidates in federal, state and local races address leading up to the Nov. 3 election.

Based on that feedback, we developed a five-item questionnaire centering the issues most important to residents across Johnson County.

Each day this week, we’ve published the candidates’ responses to one question. So far, we’ve published responses on special education, reading and literacy, parents and controversial books, and school vaccines.

Today, we’re publishing candidates’ responses to the final question:

One reader asked plainly: Are Johnson County public schools effective, and are taxpayers getting their money’s worth? Beyond test scores, what measures should the board publish so families and taxpayers can judge how well Kansas schools are using their money?

Below are the answers the Post received from candidates on the issue:

Amy Diediker (Democratic)

I believe Johnson County has strong public schools, and taxpayers deserve to know their investment is producing results. But we need to look beyond a single test score.

We should be transparent about student growth, graduation and attendance rates, teacher retention, college and career readiness, and how dollars are being spent in classrooms and student support.

Much of this information is already collected. Our job should be to make it clear and accessible so families and taxpayers can see both the investment we’re making and the outcomes for students.

We also need to keep in mind that there are many ways students are successful in unmeasurable areas. For example, self-confidence and resilience are hugely important in being successful after high school. But these are difficult things to measure. I would encourage community members to get involved in their local schools so they can see firsthand the tangible and non-tangible successes that are happening in our schools on a daily basis.

Jim McMullen (Republican)

Johnson County public schools are effective. In business, I like to say, if you’re not moving forward, then you’re moving backwards. The same concept goes for schools. We need to always be thinking about, and executing towards, moving forward. My observation is that all of our school districts have done a good job in recent years. I do think that the taxpayers are getting their money’s worth, though I also think every one of our school districts have spent money unwisely – on some capital projects and in how they spend their operating budgets. Some of our districts have done a better job than others at keeping on top of deferred maintenance on their aging buildings. A good question that every local school board member and every administrative leader should ask is “If we were starting this school district from scratch, would we spend money on that?” But on whole, I think we have good financial leadership at each of our local districts in Johnson County. Test scores are very good measures. We also need to have far more digestible and understandable financial disclosures. School finance is unnecessarily inscrutable to most. The average citizen shouldn’t have to be a CPA to understand their local school budgets. So the state board, together with the legislature, should help develop simplified financial disclosures so that citizens know exactly how their tax dollars are being spent.