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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 Tue, May 23, 2017
Senator Estes has several amendments on the utility fee language, however, he feels that it may be best to strike the whole part.
Senator Estes moved for the utility fee language to be stricken from the bill. Senator McGinn seconded the motion. The amendment passed.
Senator Bollier discussed reintroducing her previous amendment, and the changes that were made during the break.
Senator Bollier motioned to adopt amendment #10A, and Senator Baumgardner seconded the motion. (Attachment 6)
The Committee had questions and asked Jim McNiece, State Board of Education, to help clarify reasons for changing from three to five years the amount of time for schools to show achievement test improvement. He stated that the State Board has established a five-year accreditation cycle that would lend itself well to a five-year review. Under this review, local district's must show either that they have used best practices or provide acceptable reasons for not using them. Discussion ensued about changing the rolling process to a 5-year review. Senator Bollier offered a conceptual amendment that would change the 3-year review process to one occurring with the 5-year accreditation model.
Senator Bollier motioned to amend amendment #10A. Senator Baumgardner seconded the motion.
Senator Pettey asked for further clarification on how the districts make the choice to base high-density at-risk weighting on individual schools rather than districts. Senator Baumgardner asked about the specifics of the list of accountability. Senator Hensley stated he would like to have a better understanding of the financial implications of the amendment as it relates to overall spending and impact. Senator Baumgardner asked Scott Frank, Legislative Post Audit, to help explain their review of the additional challenges of urban-poverty versus poverty in rural areas. Mr. Frank discussed laws and how they applied to high-density and free lunch counts. Senator McGinn asked if high-density was the same as high poverty. Mr. Frank noted that high density at-risk refers to a high concentration of students living in poverty and that high poverty (and the qualifications for high-density at-risk) is not limited to urban areas.
Senator Kerschen asked how many schools would be included in this proposal. Mr. Penner responded that 15 buildings would be able to use the funding that would otherwise not qualify for high-density at-risk weighting. Senator Kerschen stated that he was unsure of the funding because there may be more than the 4 schools that would utilize this change. Senator Baumgardner noted that 148 districts today are eligible for some type of this funding, and is in favor of the amendment. She stated that the Committee heard Randy Watson, KSDE, discuss the problems of not empowering educators and administrators to solve problems at the building level and that this amendment provides more resources and accountability with which to do that. Senator Baumgardner believes this amendment will help individual schools to determine their needs based on the individual school and help them foster programs to help at-risk students.
Senator Bollier moved her amendment, The amendment passed.
Senator McGinn motioned to remove the expiration date for Bilingual and At-Risk Weightings, Senator Hensley seconded the motion.
Discussion ensued on date changes, the reason behind them, and the possibility of providing certainty for this funding by avoiding sunset dates. Chairperson Denning and Senator Baumgardner discussed the need to review components of the bill such as these. Mr. King discussed reasoning behind targeting these sunset dates after the time when the State Board completes studies regarding the optimal programs for helping under-performing students. The Committee discussed making a one-year change as opposed to eliminating it all together.
Senator Pettey discussed having a similar amendment that addresses the date change of the bilingual weighting. Her amendment removes sunsets on the at-risk, bilingual and career technical education (CTE) weighting sections and instead adding a new section requiring that the Legislature review them. Senator Pettey then noted that the previous amendment addressed the Career Technical Education, so that portion of her amendment would not be relevant.
Senator Pettey made a substitute motion to adopt amendment #8. Senator Hensley seconded the motion. The amendment failed. (Attachment 7)
Discussion ensued regarding Senator McGinn's previous conceptual amendment to change sunset dates.
Senator McGinn made a motion to withdraw her previous conceptual amendment. Senator Hensley withdrew his previous second to the motion.
Senator McGinn made a motion to delay the sunset date until after the audit and have a review occur by both House and the Senate Education Committees. Senator Hensley seconded the motion.
Senator Baumgardner discussed the difference between having sunset dates verses including language that calls for a review that includes hearings. Tamera Lawrence discussed that there is already language in the bill to require reviews and more review could be added into the already existing language. Senator Hensley clarified that language would be added for both House and Senate Education Committees to have hearings and review.
Senator McGinn moved her amendment. Senator Baumgardner seconded. The amendment passed.
Senator Pettey motioned to adopt amendment #9. Senator Bollier seconded the motion. (Attachment 8)
This amendment addresses language for counting kindergarten in the current year. Discussion ensued on kindergarten counts. Senator Baumgardner noted that kindergarten is different in many schools, but in talking with the Commissioner of Education, she believed that having a different count for just kindergarten was unnecessary. Mr. Dennis clarified that he recommends only doing the separate date of a kindergarten count for one year and that it would be unnecessary to do it for longer than that. Senator Baumgardner stated she had a balloon amendment that would work.
Senator Pettey withdrew her amendment. Senator Bollier withdrew her second.
Senator Baumgardner motioned to adopt amendment #14. Senator Pettey seconded the motion. (Attachment 9)
Nick Myers gave a brief explanation of the amendment, noting the balloon would count kindergarten as current year if a district had started all-day kindergarten in the current year. Senator Baumgardner stated that her goal was that if kindergarten students go all day, they would use the head count, and it addressed those that were converting to full day from half day. Senator Baumgardner clarified that this was not only for one year, it would be for future years if school districts convert to full-day kindergarten.
Chairperson Denning stated that due to the many revisions on this amendment the Committee would take a small break while the Revisor of Statues come up with the revisions.
