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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 Mon, May 22, 2017
Chairperson Denning called the meeting to order. He noted that today the Committee will be asking questions to staff and when there are no more questions they would look at amendments.
Tamera Lawrence testified regarding her document presented to the Committee outlining the components of SB251 and took questions from the Committee on those components. (Attachment 1)
Senator Bollier asked for clarification on out-of-state Students totals and funding for SB251. Senator Goddard expressed his concern, commented that one school in his district has 40 students that come from other states, most of which are students of district employees or local landowners.
Senators McGinn, Hensley, and Pettey asked for clarification on transportation of out-of-state students and about the 2.5 mile rule. Mr. Dale Dennis, KSDE, answered these questions on how these students are counted, noting that there are 624 out-of-state students attending Kansas schools. Senator Baumgardner discussed these students and their weightings, clarifying that Kansas does not send money for children to got to school outside of the state. She stated the Committee should be mindful that Kansas taxpayers are paying for these students.
Senator Pettey asked for clarification on excellence scholarships, kindergarten enrollment counts, the 20 mill tax levy, and the proposed surcharge on utility fees. She also raised questions on bilingual funds, leading Ms. Lawrence to note that SB251 requires bilingual weighting to be used for ESL instruction in various new sections of SB251.
A discussion on transportation weighting ensued. Mr. Long noted that under the CLASS Act, transportation weighting was repealed, but with the re-implementation of a transportation weighting in SB251, the language from the prior formula is being reinstated.
Senator Estes asked for clarification on the process of what happens to the bill if it's found unconstitutional. Mr. King addressed Senator Estes' questions by discussing the potential for the Court to sever disfavored portions of the bill (as it did at least temporarily in Montoy) and retain the reset of the bill if it chose to do so.
Senator Hensley asked Mr. Penner to provide calculations similar to what he did for the House K-12 Budget Committee regarding the impact of SB251 on BASE aid over the next five years with an assumed 1.5% CPI-U Midwest during that time. Mr. Penner agreed to do so.
Senator Baumgardner asked Dr. Randy Watson, Commissioner of KSDE, to the podium to answer questions. In response to her question, he testified that SB251 would add $2 million to 4-year old at-risk pre-K funding, which would be used to increase the number of students who could participate in that program. He emphasized that through the statewide listening initiative undertaken by the State Board, Kansans supported a variety of approaches for addressing community pre-K needs with the opportunities provided by 4-year old at-risk pre-K being just one of these possibilities.
Responding to another question from Senator Baumgardner, Dr. Watson stated that regarding federal funds, the Title programs, special education dollars and accreditation monies could be placed in jeopardy if schools closed on June 30th, while conceding that he was not a legal expert in this area.
Senator Baumgardner asked how the KSDE is going to quantify the Rose standards. Dr. Watson discussed Rose as "the underpinnings of the accreditation system." The five areas on which the State Board focuses for student success are: academic skills, cognitive, technical, employ-ability and civic engagement. The State Board has also concluded that social/emotional growth is a valuable component of student growth. He continued that these State Board outcomes were "built on the foundation of the Rose capacities," but exceed them in many ways. He noted that failure to met these Rose capacities could lead to loss of school accreditation under new State Board outcome standards. Dr. Watson also referenced his presentation in previous Committee meetings. (Attachment 2) (Attachment 3)
Senator Baumgardner further questioned Dr. Watson on the disadvantages of large one-time increases in K-12 funding as opposed to a multi-year phase-in approach. He answered that the most significant disadvantage of a large single-year funding increase is that the most pressing need of most schools is to hire new personnel, many of which would not be available in such a short period of time regardless of new funding. Dr. Watson further noted that the State Board's funding recommendation was not based off of the most recent Gannon ruling from the Kansas Supreme Court, but rather derived from the funding mandates provided by the three-judge panel in the district court. When the State Board set forth their budget, they had a premise that school districts would use such funds within the State Board model to help students be successful in line with the State Board's "complex goals," not the Rose standards.
Senator Bollier lauded the efforts of the State Board to measure student success and inquired about the State Board's role in encouraging student success. Dr. Watson testified that the State Board looked beyond high school to measure success, with a goal to raise participation post-secondary education to 75%. He further commented that the system's focus over the last 15 years almost exclusively on ready and math scores has not contributed to long-term student success because such life success is based on far more than such test scores.
Chairperson Denning adjourned the meeting until May 23rd, 2017, at 9AM.
