Here is a recap of the week and look to next week:

Monday, January 29th - House K-12 Education Budget Committee heard HB 2594. This bill establishes an education task force to review and make recommendations on the state’s school finance formula that will be revised by 2027. The bill also abolishes the Special Education Task Force that was created last year. Many who testified made suggestions regarding the makeup of the task force. I testified there is a lack of real world school finance experience on the task force.  I also expressed concern that the Special Education Task Force that was created in legislation last year (and only met once) will be disbanded.

Tuesday, January 30th - Senate Education heard SB 386. This bill is an identical bill of HB 2485 that was heard recently in the K-12 Budget Committee. It uses current year student count or one previous year. Testimony was similar to what we heard in the House K-12 Budget meeting on their bill. Leadership on the Senate and House committees appear to be in favor of counting students that are currently enrolled in the school district. Please let your Representative and Senator know how this legislation will impact your district. 

A survey was sent to school districts to request information on the number of AED machines currently in schools, number of staff trained in CPR, and how many districts have an Emergency Response Plan in place. As I have discussed before, there is an AED bill currently in the House Education Committee. Chair Adam Thomas is working with parties from the American Heart Association, KSDE, State School Board, KDHE, KSHSAA, KNEA, KASB, and USA Kansas to come up with a workable plan. He hopes to work the bill in committee next week. Another unfunded mandate is being addressed in the discussions.

Looking ahead to next week, we are at a point in the session when committees will be working bills already heard in preparation to get the bills to the House or Senate floor for passing [or not]. By the end of February, most bills need to be heard by either the House or the Senate to become a reality.

Monday, February 5th - House K-12 Education Budget will hear HB 2612 which would require districts to be in compliance with all state laws and rules and regulations to be accredited, and requires the state board of education to establish a process to challenge determinations of such compliance. This is really a bad bill; the Chair of the committee put it on the calendar to keep many from providing testimony. Time will tell what type of momentum the bill will get, more on it later. 

Wednesday, February 7th - House K-12 Education Budget will hear HB 2650 would require school districts to establish an at-risk accountability plan and to show academic improvement in certain subgroups and students identified as eligible for at-risk programs. This bill also prohibits the State Board of Education from revising the curriculum standards in English Language Arts and Math until 75% of all students achieve proficiency. Additionally, the bill requires school districts to comply with all state laws and rules and regulations to maintain accreditation. The bill being heard on Monday the 5th is bad, but this one is worse. The expectation of proficiency is that at-risk students will achieve a 3 or 4 on the state assessment. There is time to provide testimony on this bill. Please submit testimony on HB 2650 to the House K-12 Education Committee by 3:30 on Monday, February 5th.

Thursday, February 8th.  - House K-12 Education Budget will hear HB 2521 would require the state board of education to authorize teaching licenses for individuals who complete an alternative teacher certification program. This bill will meet resistance from some due to not requiring some of the traditional teacher licensure practices.

Also on Thursday, the Senate Education Committee will hear SB 407. This bill is identical to the one above being heard in the House K-12 Education Budget on teacher licensure.

As stated, Education Committees will also be working bills that have previously been heard. I will let you know what gets out of Committees; the next step is for the bills to be placed on the calendar for consideration of the full House and Senate. Have a great week!