Kansas AG Kris Kobach encouraged the State Board of Education to remove sex discrimination language from the state’s lunch contracts, the latest in his offensive against gender and identity politics.
One union, rather than two separate for classified and certified staff, will represent all unionized Lawrence school district employees moving forward.
Disagreement exists on the Kansas Legislature’s task force reworking the state’s public school finance formula about the importance of high school graduation rate as a measure of student success.
The Kansas Legislature’s budget bill that eventually passed with bipartisan support contained no new funding of Blueprint for Literacy, which aims to intervene on behalf of 33% of Kansas students not meeting fundamental levels of reading.
A directive from the U.S. Department of Education immediately froze more than $22 million in federal funding meant to help Kansas students recover from pandemic-era learning loss.
New legislation concerning fetal tax exemptions and fetal development education are coming to Kansas this summer, garnering praise from anti-abortion advocates and criticism from abortion rights supporters.
Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson urged districts to cancel breaks or extend the school year to make up for snow days. He is also proposing half-day summer school for young students who are struggling in reading and math.
A proposal examined by a House committee would shift certified teachers — but not all school employees — from the modest tier 3 plan in the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System to the more robust tier 2 plan in KPERS.
Republicans and Democrats want to cut Kansas property taxes this year. But they can’t decide on the best way to do it — and some worry that core local services like schools, roads and law enforcement could suffer as a result.
Public school advocates are asking lawmakers to proceed with caution as they consider slashing the statewide property tax that directly funds public education.
