School Finance Bill Coming Together, Brownback Support Rock-Bottom and Falling, Fighting for Medicaid Expansion

The House K-12 Education Budget Committee worked until nearly 9:00 last night taking up amendments to HB 2410, the school finance bill.

Amendment after amendment, the debate went on through the afternoon and into the night and most of those amendments were adopted. Here are changes made yesterday:

• The bill changed the LOB into three local levies, the Local Foundation Budget up to 20% a portion of which had to be transferred to bilingual and at-risk programs, the Local Enhancement Budget up to 5% that could be used for anything, and the Local Activities Budget up to 4% that had to be used for non-instructional purposes. A motion by Rep. Fred Patton (R-Topeka) replaced all three with a 33% LOB as in the prior formula. KNEA supports this change.
• The bill phased in all-day kindergarten over three years. On a motion by Rep. Clay Aurand (R-Belleville), all day kindergarten would become effective next year. KNEA supports this change.
• A motion by Rep. Melissa Rooker (R-Fairway) added $2 million in 2018 and another $2 million in 2019 for preschool at-risk programs. KNEA supports this change.
• Two motions by Rep. Jim Karleskint (R-Tonganoxie) added $800,000 for new teacher mentoring and $1.7 million for teacher professional development. KNEA supports both changes.
• The bill had a five-year limit on bilingual aid for individual students. An amendment by Rep. Larry Campbell (R-Olathe) removed this limit. KNEA supports the change.
• A motion by Rep. Ed Trimmer (D-Winfield) to return bilingual weighting to the contact hours formula in prior law was changed by a substitute amendment from Rep. Aurand to distribute bilingual aid by FTE with a weighting of 0.185. While this results in no loss of overall bilingual funding, school districts that have successfully recruited bilingually licensed teachers will lose funding while those that have few such teachers will gain. KNEA supports a blended method that both funds students and encourages recruitment and retention of bilingually licensed teachers.
• Vocational weighting was not included in the bill. Instead, the bill would require districts to transfer $100/FTE to a career and post-secondary education fund to be used for vocational programs and dual credit opportunities. A motion by Aurand to require a $50/FTE transfer in 2018 and a $100/FTE transfer in 2019 with a vocational “hold harmless” provision failed. A subsequent motion by Karleskint to return to the prior vocational weighting and calling on the SBOE to study the cost of vocational programs for future funding considerations was adopted. KNEA supports this change.
• On capital outlay funding, a motion by Campbell to allow capital outlay funds to be spent on utilities was adopted while a motion by Rooker to exempt capital outlay levies from future TIF (redevelopment) projects failed. KNEA supported both amendments.
• An amendment by Rep. Brenda Landwehr (R-Wichita) to require a uniform accounting system with more detailed reporting to the state failed. KNEA is neutral on this amendment. KASB and school districts have opposed it.
• The bill required two student enrollment count dates (9/20 and 2/20) and used the average for determining funding. It also included a complicated three-year formula for examining enrollment going forward. A motion by Rep. Adam Smith (R-Weskan) returned the enrollment count to a single time (9/20) with a second count (2/20) for military dependent children. KNEA supports this change.
• The bill changed the corporate tuition tax credit (voucher) program by expanding the rules for student eligibility but then limiting the private schools’ families could choose to those accredited by the SBOE and that either exceed the trendline for post-secondary success or have an ACT composite above the state average. An amendment by Trimmer to remove the eligibility expansion and sunset the program in five years was not adopted. Instead, a substitute motion by Aurand that would remove the eligibility expansion and require students to be “direct-certified” by the Department of Children and Families while maintaining the new limits on eligible schools was adopted. KNEA remains opposed to the program but believes these changes are improvements.

There were a few other amendments that failed and resulted in no changes to the underlying bill.

At the conclusion of last night’s work, the committee was recessed – not adjourned – because one amendment was still under discussion and will be taken up again on Monday. That amendment by Rep. Adam Smith would return the transportation formula back to the prior law. Under the bill, the transportation formula was changed to address what is called “the algebra error” identified by the Division of Legislative Post Audit. There has long been a math error in the formula and correcting that error will cause school districts to lose transportation funding. Legislative staffers were directed to find a way to fix the math error and make adjustments so that schools will not lose funding. On Monday they will return to this amendment and see if it’s possible to do so.

Monday may also see some additional amendments specific to funding amounts. The intent of those offering and adopting amendments is to end up with a bill that will provide $150 million in new funding each year for five years for a total of $750 million new dollars.

Monday, then, is the big day. We expect that the Committee will send out their final product at the conclusion of their Monday meeting. At that time, we will examine the bill in its entirety to determine our position. We applaud the Committee for their hard work yesterday. The bill is dramatically better than it was when the committee convened at 1:00.

New Polling Shows Broad Public Support for Increased School Funding

In a press conference today, the Kansas Center for Economic Growth released the results of a new poll gauging public support for Governor Brownback, the Brownback tax policies, and public school funding.

The results back up what we suspected. Governor Brownback remains very unpopular, few Kansans support his 2012 tax plan and want the legislature to reverse it, and a whopping 83% of Kansans want greater funding for public education.  More key findings from the KCEG poll and a full breakdown of the school funding support data follows:

• Kansans are deeply dissatisfied with both Gov. Brownback and his signature tax plan. Two-thirds of Kansas voters disapprove of the governor’s job performance, with 67 percent who disapprove, and 54 percent who strongly disapprove. Those numbers are nearly identical to discontent with his tax policy (67 percent oppose it and 51 percent strongly oppose it).
• Nearly all Kansas voters are worried the state is not investing enough in public education. Eighty-five percent of Kansas voters feel concerned about the state’s level of spending on public education. Without comprehensive tax reform, lawmakers cannot restore funding to classrooms.
• There is broad consensus that the Brownback tax plan harmed the Kansas economy and should be repealed. Seventy-three percent of voters feel the governor’s tax policy hurt the Kansas economy, while 64 percent of Kansans support rolling back the Brownback plan.

More Action Needed to Override the Governor’s VETO of Medicaid Expansion

Several representatives will be holding morning coffee Q&A’s along with town halls this weekend.  Contact your Rep’s office and find out if yours will be holding just such an event.  Regardless, we encourage you to use the following link to the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas website where you can take action to contact your Reps and encourage them to vote YES to override the Governor’s VETO.