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Minutes for SB353 - Committee on Education
Short Title
Requiring the allocation of sufficient school district moneys to improve academic performance of underachieving students.
Minutes Content for Mon, Feb 17, 2020
Chairperson Baumgardner opened the hearing.
Proponent:
Mike O’Neal, Kansas Policy Institute, spoke in favor of this bill saying it amends the current statute dealing with the development and passage of local school district budgets by the locally elected school boards. Under current law, the local school boards annually are required to assess the educational needs of each attendance center in the district before the budget is approved. In a special Session of 2005, the Legislature, in response to a Court order requiring the appropriation of additional funds for schools, took steps to establish a state policy that at least 65% of funds should be expended for instruction. Schools had historically fallen short of that goal and sadly have fallen far short of that goal in every year since. SB353 is a commonsense answer to get Boards to assume their proper role in developing budgets that meet the needs of our students and the expectations of the Court in terms of adequacy. Proficiency and attainment of our statutory educational goals by all students should be the overriding consideration. The Boards are constitutionally and statutorily responsible for ensuring the district budget they approve is calculated to get students to where they meet or exceed our educational goals set forth in state law. (Attachment 4)
Opponent:
Mark Tallman, Associate Executive Director, Kansas Association of School Boards, spoke in opposition to this bill. KASB has no objection to the concepts stated in the bill and believe local boards, guided by state law and the State Board of Education and supported by their communities, are already working to use their resources to help students succeed as measured by seven capacities. However, KASB feels that it may suggest that locally elected school boards are not committed to achieving these capacities simply because we have not reached them and because it may imply that we are not reaching these goals because boards are misallocating dollars due to either indifference or ignorance or perhaps some other reasons. It also may imply that the one-size fits all solution is simply spending more on a single budget function and less on everything else. (Attachment 5)
Neutral:
Neal Kingston, University Distinguished Professor, Educational Psychology, School of Education, Director of Achievement and Assessment Institute, University of Kansas submitted testimony regarding score reporting schedules for the Kansas Assessment Program. The University of Kansas Achievement and Assessment Institute (AAI) provides test development, administration, and reporting services for KSDE.(Attachment 6)
Chairperson Baumgardner closed the hearing on SB353.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:36 PM.
The next scheduled meeting is February 18, 2020.
