House Status:
Senate Status:
Senate Status:
Minutes for HB2540 - Committee on Education
Short Title
Requiring moneys attributable to at-risk student weighting be expended for approved at-risk educational programs.
Minutes Content for Thu, Mar 12, 2020
Chairperson Baumgardner reopened the hearing HB2540.
Neutral Testimony:
Mark Desetti, Kansas National Education Association, stated this bill does three things, extends high-density at-risk funding, restricts spending of at-risk money to only programs on a KSDE website list with some one-year “provisional” exceptions, and demands significant reporting requirements on the efficacy of each program used on individual at-risk students. They appreciate the extension of the sunset but the section on data collection is quite extensive and would appear to be overkill. The most concerning part is the requirement that at-risk dollars be spent only on a list of identified “at-risk and provisional at-risk educational programs based on best practices”. They believe that meeting the needs of at-risk students requires a concerted effort not just to find the right “programs” but also to transform educational practice. Changing “practices” to “transform a culture” is not a program that you can buy off an approved list, but it still costs money. Professional development, mentoring, coaching, professional learning communities costs money. And all of those are not packaged as programs. He asked the Committee to narrow the scope of the data collection and to remove the restrictions on spending. (Attachment 1)
Mark Tallman, Associate Executive Director for Advocacy and Communications, Kansas Association of School Boards, appeared as neutral on this bill because it has both positive features and areas of concern. On the positive side, it extends the high-density at-risk weighting for five years. Originally this bill required the State Board to provide a list of approved at-risk programs and limit at-risk expenditures to those programs. In response, the House Committee amended the bill. New reporting requirements in this bill would be time consuming and difficult. We would encourage the Committee to carefully evaluate whether these additional requirements will lead to more meaningful accountability and what evidence supports them. (Attachment 2)
Written neutral testimony was submitted by Dr. Rick Atha, Deputy Superintendent, Shawnee Mission School District. (Attachment 3)
Chairperson Baumgardner closed the hearing on HB2540.
