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Minutes for SB438 - Committee on Education
Short Title
Eliminating the requirement to subtract other aid from the state payment in the AO-K program.
Minutes Content for Wed, Feb 14, 2024
Chair Baumgardner opened the hearing.
Staff gave an overview of the bill. (Attachment 34)
Kelly Oliver, Senior Director for Finance and Administration, Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR), testifying on behalf of Dr. Blake Flanders, President and CEO, KBOR, reported the purpose of this bill is to update language enacted last year. The Accelerating Opportunity: Kansas (AO-K) to Work program assists students in obtaining a high school equivalency and becoming ready for transferable college-level courses while earning an industry credential. This bill would ensure all AO-K students are made eligible for the AO_K program stipend as originally intended and to remove language requiring the subtraction of other aid from the amount awarded for this benefit. With the current provisions, no students were eligible for the benefit. An amendment was requested in testimony. (Attachment 35)
Chris Stanyer, Goodwill Industries of Kansas, explained that this bill will allow more students to benefit from this legislation. It also limits the amount of funding available to a student over their lifetime, which is reasonable to prevent funding misuse while still allowing students to make full use of the program. In the last fiscal year, Goodwill Industries of Kansas paid $11,931 out of pocket for these required student materials. We are fortunate in that we had retail revenue dollars available to cover this additional cost, but the same cannot always be side for the other adult education programs around Kansas. This legislation was the final piece to ensuring adult education students, a workforce of nearly 180,000 persons statewide, have access to training and the required materials for that training. (Attachment 36)
The Chair closed the hearing on SB438.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:45 PM.
The next meeting will be held Thursday, February 15, 2024 at 1:30 PM in Room 144-S.
