Legislation altering the state’s funding formula for public school districts will bolster schools struggling with declining enrollment, the governor said as she signed the bill into law.
Kansas senators killed a school finance bill that would have guided state education funding for the next three years, heeding warnings from public schools advocates that the bill’s special education provision could have proven disastrous.
Kansas lawmakers are trying to overhaul special education funding for public schools in a move condemned by public school advocates.
Rep. Bill Rhiley proposed the Kansas House pass a bill granting public school districts the opportunity to hire unlicensed chaplains to serve as trusted Biblical advisors and counselors to students, teachers and staff in school buildings.
Though he wouldn’t name the specific books, Rep. Adam Thomas knows objectionable material lurks on the shelves of Kansas’ public school libraries.
The Kansas Supreme Court issued a two-page order Tuesday releasing jurisdiction of the Gannon v. State school finance case after concluding the Legislature complied with mandates to resolve violations of the Kansas Constitution by suitably funding public education.
A renewed assault on public education, defended Monday by Republicans on the House K-12 Budget Committee, would set the stage for districts to be stripped of accreditation. The bill wouldn’t hold private schools to comparable accreditation standards.
Kansas and Missouri public schools enroll thousands of fewer students compared to before the pandemic, in part, because of a homeschooling boom and declining birth rates.
The task force created by the Kansas Legislature to resolve funding challenges in K-12 special education endorsed a four-year plan Friday adding $82.7 million annually in appropriations to local school districts.
Rep. Kristey Williams and Sen. Renee Erickson agreed there was little value in convening a task force to study the state’s shortfall in funding public school special education programs because the financial issues were too complex for such a group to unravel and the only remedy suggested by education advocacy groups was too simplistic to warrant examination.
