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Minutes for SB251 - Committee on Senate Select Committee on Education Finance
Short Title
Creating the Kansas school equity and enhancement act.
Minutes Content for Thu, May 18, 2017
Chairperson Denning called the meeting to order.
Tamera Lawrence, Office of Revisor of Statutes, presented SB 251. She noted it is very similar to HB2410, and discussed the differences between the two. (Attachment 1)
Senators Estes, McGinn, and Hensley asked clarifying questions regarding the utility fee being proposed. Ms. Lawrence answered questions and a discussion ensued on calculating such fees.
Senator McGinn ensued discussion on Capital Outlay calculations. Senator Hensley asked for clarification on worksheets to calculate amounts and Mr. Penner responded that it would come from the Department of Revenue.
Senator Pettey asked for clarification on sunset dates in SB251 and Ms. Lawrence described the sunsets included in the bill and how they differed from those in HB2410. Ms. Lawrence noted that Career Technical and Virtual State Aid memorandum had a typo in the date, but that the document would be corrected immediately for distribution and clarification purposes.
Eddie Penner, Legislative Research Department, discussed and answered questions on the reasonable calculation of BASE aid in SB251 and the use of CPI-U Midwest indexing for BASE aid in that same bill. In his testimony, and through the presented charts, he showed that the methodology and the BASE aid that generated through the "successful schools" method of calculation was identical to the ones that he previously presented to the Committee. (Attachment 2) (Attachment 3) In response to a question from Senator Bollier, Mr. Penner confirmed that even in the "successful schools" used in this methodology, there are students that have not satisfied the Rose standards.
Mr. Penner further noted that SB251 used a three-year rolling average CPI-U Midwest to index future BASE aid increases, as opposed to the non-averaged CPI-U indexing presented in HB2410 the previous week in Committee.
Chairperson Denning noted the importance of using the "successful schools" reasonable calculation approach in determining BASE aid. Because this calculation mandated increases in BASE aid greater than CPI-U indexing does not begin until school year 2019-20.
Senator Hensley questioned Mr. Penner on the at-risk spending in SB251 relative to that in HB2410 and the amount recommended in the Post Audit study. Mr. Penner responded that SB251 spent roughly $23 million less on the at-risk weighting than HB2410, which used the at-risk weighting recommended by Post Audit.
Chairperson Denning asked Mr. King to assess the legal implication of the "successful schools" approach for reasonably calculating BASE aid. Mr. King testified that this approach followed the Court's request that the Legislature create a funding formula calculated to enhance student performance. Mr. King stated the the "successful schools" approach, combined with the CPI-U indexing "shows the Legislature's work" and illustrates the considerable effort taken and evidence considered by the Legislature in responding to Gannon's overall K-12 funding concerns. He further testified that this approach provided a viable method of trying to discern what BASE aid reasonably should be to increase student success and it shows the Committee's work far more than what occurred in past school finance cases.
Chairperson Denning asked Mr. King if the Committee was adequately responding to Gannon in other areas such as at-risk/under-performing students, full funding all-day kindergarten school accountability, and producing measurable student performance standards. Mr. King responded that the more you can: (1) target money to at-risk and bilingual funding; (2) insure that this at-risk funding goes to help under-performing students; (3) target these funds to programs and initiatives that best help under-performing students; and (4) properly account for these at-risk funds, the better the school funding formula will likely be viewed by the Court. Mr. King noted that both SB251 and HB2410 make many positive steps towards these four goals.
Senators Baumgardner, Goddard, McGinn, and Pettey asked Mr. Penner clarifying questions about KPERS costs associated with SB251 and the proposed utility fee and related discussions ensued.
With no further questions, Chairperson Denning asked for Testimony to start.
The following conferees were welcomed by Chairperson Denning to present oral testimony for SB251:
Dr. Pat All, Superintendent, USD #233 (Attachment 4) - Dr. All testified about the importance of excellence above the adequacy requirements of the Rose standards and beyond funding levels required by the Kansas Supreme court in Gannon. She also stated the importance of raising at-risk weighting to 0.484 as recommended by the Post Audit study and included in HB2410. She emphasized her desire, and that of her district, to have BASE aid at higher levels than in SB251 in order to achieve the excellence about which she had previously spoken. She further discussed the increased infrastructure, technology and maintenance costs that supports increased capital outlay funding.
Dr. Suzan Patton, Superintendent, USD #382 (Attachment 5) - Dr. Patton highlighted the increase in the number of students with social and emotional issues that, at least in her district, warrants a heightened focus on at-risk funding. She stated that she is opposed to SBS251 because she feels that more BASE aid is needed than contained in this bill in order to achieve excellence for every student, especially given rising costs in health insurance and utilities. She urged the Committee to focus on the funding necessary to help the average student to succeed, not only underprivileged and gifted students.
Tim Danneberg, Director of Communication & Customer Services, City of Olathe (Attachment 6)
Cassandra Barton, Insight School & Kansas Virtual Academy (Attachment 7) (Attachment 8)
Dr. Dan Burngardt, Superintendent, USD #204 (Attachment 9) - Dr. Burngardt testified against the sunset for CTE and at-risk funding in SB251 because, in his opinion, it would discourage districts from making long-term investments that would help students in both categories.
Mark Tallman, Associate Executive Director, Kansas Association of School Boards (Attachment 10) (Attachment 11) - In addition to providing detailed testimony on the KASB official position and relating that position to the tenets of SB251, Mr. Tallman stated that all accounting requirements in SB251 need to consider the demographic differences between districts. He further stated his belief that keeping the formula in line with inflation is the most important aspect of ensuring adequate funding for schools. He also discussed the positives and negatives of increased uses for capital outlay funds, admitting that his members are divided on the issue.
In response to these capital outlay concerns and a question on the subject by Senator Bollier, Mr. King noted that because equalized increases in capital outlay raises overall funding available to schools, that provision SB251 likely enhances the overall funding amount for purposes of the Court's adequacy determination. On equity, while Mr. King acknowledged that certain items (such as teacher salaries) could not be included under Gannon in capital outlay expenditures, the acknowledged link between a district's capital resources and utility expenses should allay any equity concerns from SB251's capital outlay provision.
Dave Trabert, President, Kansas Policy Institute (Attachment 12)
Mark Desetti, Legislative and Political Advocacy, KNEA (Attachment 13) - Mr. Desetti testified that the targeting of resources in HB2410 towards under-performing students would be helpful for increasing student performance and responding favorably to Gannon. These specific provisions, according to Mr. Desetti, include: raising at-risk weighting to 0.484, fully funding all-day kindergarten (which frees up at-risk funds for other efforts to help under-performing students), increasing bilingual funding and new money for teacher development.
Jeremy LaFaver, Alliance for Childhood Education (Attachment 14)
The following conferees presented written testimony for SB251:
Terry Collins, Ed.S. Director of Special Education, Doniphan County Special Ed Coop #616 (Attachment 15)
Dr. Wayne Burke, Superintendent, USD #230 (Attachment 16)
Dr. Cory Gibson, Superintendent of Valley Center, USD #262 (Attachment 17)
Dr. Perry McCabe, Business Manager, Buhler USD 313 (Attachment 18) (Attachment 19) (Attachment 20) (Attachment 21)
Steve Splichal, Superintendent, USD #491 (Attachment 22)
Chairperson Denning adjourned the meeting until Friday, May 19th, 2017 at 8:30am.
