There hasn’t been a great deal that has taken place this week. The snow storm that visited Kansas on Tuesday brought most activity at the Capital to a halt. On Wednesday evening, the Governor delivered her annual State of the State Address.

The Governor’s budget and how it pertains to education.

Early Childhood is receiving significant attention from the Governor this year. She proposes to spend $56.4 million in new money on Early Childhood education. The money will go toward the early childhood workforce, expand access to child care slots, and cut taxes for working families.  

In K-12 education, the Governor continues to uphold her commitment to fully fund education as dictated by the Gannon case. The key piece to the Gannon case for this year is the CPI adjustment. This sets the base at $5,381 for FY 25 and $5,623 for FY 26. The budget also aims to fully fund special education over a 5-year period to 92% of excess costs. For FY 25 this would be an increase of $79.9 million. Please keep in mind this is similar to what the Governor recommended last year. This amount was cut out of the budget when it went to the House K-12 Education Budget Committee.

Education Committees did not hear any bills this week. The meeting times were spent primarily on receiving briefing from KSDE on a variety of topics. Updates are scheduled for next week as well.

Looking to next week. There is one bill that will be heard in the House Education Committee on Wednesday at 1:30 in Room 218N. The bill was introduced on Wednesday. The bill's title is Cardiac Emergency Response Plan legislation. The bill would require all schools to have an AED machine, have a specific number of staff trained in CPR, and have a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan in place. The bill is sponsored by the American Heart Association. It is unusual to have a hearing so quickly after introduction. In speaking with Chairman Thomas of the committee, he told me this Wednesday is American Heart Association day at the Capital. Since there will be many people at the Capital that day with interest in the bill, he is holding a hearing. 

I understand the AHA’s desire to keep as many people as safe as possible, and I agree with that stand. However, my concerns with this bill is it has the potential of another unfunded mandate for schools and there is not enough information on what schools currently have. On Wednesday there was a survey sent out to determine where schools in Kansas are with respect to AED machines in each building, how many staff are trained in CPR, and how many districts have an Emergency Response Plan in place. Please respond to the survey when you can.

Also, the coming week we will see a great deal of attention placed on tax legislation. Republican leadership in the Legislature want to get legislation passed as quickly as possible. Republican leadership is pushing for a flat income tax. This type of legislation was passed late in the session last year. The Governor vetoed the bill, the override attempt failed by just a couple of votes. With this being an election year, there is a strong desire to get tax cuts in place. The Governor has indicated she continues to oppose a flat tax. Stay tuned.