Jim Karleskint
jimkarleskint@yahoo.com
Many of you are on Spring Break this week, I hope you are able to get some time off and recharge. In last week’s newsletter I spoke of “Gut & Go”. At the time the House K-12 Education Committee had started the first part of the procedure. They used SB 83 which had passed the Senate, Chairwoman Kristy Williams gutted the bill a week ago Thursday, we had to wait till Monday to see what contents were replaced in the bill. On Monday we saw a combination of policy and budget items combined. The contents of HB 2218 were placed in the bill plus other budget items. HB 2218 is the Education Savings Account Bill or this sessions version of a voucher bill.
Just to remind you some the points contained in HB 2218 now SB 83.
Public funds will be going to private schools with no oversight, no expectations, no checks and balances whatsoever. In states where this type of legislation has been passed has shown significant amounts of corruption and misuse of funds. There is little evidence that students making a transfer from the public school to a private school makes any significant academic gains. Often time students return to the public school and are behind from when they left the public school.
There were also budget items placed in the SB 83 shell. The budget items were placed there to make it difficult for legislators to vote against and the Governor to veto. The budget items include.
$72.3 million for SPED funding. This is the amount the Governor placed in her budget this year for Special Education.
Also included was the requirement to give teachers of raise of approximately $2000, this would be in addition to any agreements the district already has with their teachers. The other additional piece to this bill is allowing 1A schools to use enrollment from the past 4 years instead of 2 years.
Please contact your legislator to encourage them to vote against this legislation. We need to have clean bills and not mix policy and budget.
More Gut & Go’s to come. The past week the House K-12 Education Budget Committee also gutted another Senate Bill this time SB 113. Representative Williams indicated to me the education budget will be placed in this bill, no doubt some other pieces of legislation as well. The bill is to be worked on Monday.
This past week the House also passed the Eddie Eagle Firearm Bill, the bill would put the standards of the Eddie Eagle program in state education standards. It does not require it be taught but use the
bill as a model if a district would decide to teach gun safety in their curriculum. The bill has been vetoed by the Governor previously.
What to expect in week #10 in Education Committees
Monday-March 13
House Education-Hearing SB 13-This bill passed the Senate, has to do with allowing local broadcasters to provide broadcast service of a school’s postseason activities. Senate Education-Hearing on HB 2092-Bill has passed the House. Has to do with Washburn University and the Board of Regents.
House K-12 Education Budget-SB 113-Please see above as I discussed the new Gut & Go.
Tuesday-March 14
House Education-SB123, has to do with granting veterans, their spouses and dependents who were stationed in Kansas for at least 11 months in state tuition to post-secondary school in Kansas.
Senate Education-Informational hearing on Farm to School programs in schools.
Wednesday, March 15
Senate Education-HB 2060 Establishing the special education and related services task force.
Please note education committees are having meeting most days this coming week. I have only listed bills that will be heard, the committees are also working bills that have been heard in preparation to vote them out of committee and send to their respective floor for consideration.
Have a great week, please contact me if you have questions.
