TOPEKA — A meeting of the Governor’s Council on Education brought forth voices of concern regarding certain attempts within the Republican-led Kansas Legislature to pass measures they viewed as regressive and destructive to Kansas public education.
Council members viewed several pieces of legislation passed or debated thus far in the 2021 legislative session as counter and potentially debilitating to their goals. A bill of primary concern was the “Frankenstein” education bill, which would ostensibly provide low-income and at-risk students opportunities to use funds usually provided to public schools for private school expenses through two separate programs.
The bill did contain a provision to fully fund K-12 education as recommended in Gov. Laura Kelly’s budget.
The bill failed in the Senate after a split 20-20 vote, but the attempt made those on the panel uneasy, as did plans to temporarily scrap tenure and a proposed budget cut of $37 million in state funding at public higher education institutions.
Steve Karlin, superintendent of Garden City Public Schools, said the Legislature’s actions were not in line with the mandate to fully fund K-12 education.
“We battled the funding issue for a lot of years but now it’s getting bigger. They’re stepping on the state board’s toes,” Karlin said. “They’re not looking at the broader-based outcomes that we’re trying to reach for Kansas kids, and I think that the atmosphere out there toward education this year was pretty toxic.”
Days before Kansas lawmakers return to the statehouse to review bills vetoed by the governor, a presentation on national trends in education policy provided a stark contrast to the goings-on in Kansas and brought forth opinions of where state policy may be erring.
The education council, established in 2019, is aimed at increasing access to quality education from early education through postsecondary attainment.
Last week, Kelly vetoed hotly debated education bills that would have required high school students to pass a civics test before graduation and install an NRA-sponsored curriculum. She also vetoed a bill banning transgender students from participating on sports teams that match their gender identity.
Critics of these measures said the Kansas State Board of Education, not the Legislature, should have the authority to set curriculum for public schools.
Final decisions on K-12 funding still hang in the balance as House and Senate budget panels chose to put off any final decision until they return for veto session next week. Republican legislators have repeatedly expressed hesitancy about putting significant funds into public education as academic outcomes remain flat.
Randy Watson, the commissioner of the Kansas State Department of Education, acknowledged academic outcomes set by the board are lagging but said focusing solely on one objective casts a misinformed view of educational successes across the state. He noted all-time high graduation rates and a 44% increase in postsecondary success over the past four years.
“While the legislature often doesn’t look at the other state board outcomes, some of those are moving already in the right direction,” Watson said. “We believe in the next couple of years that academic progress will follow.”
Others on the council were more pointed in their criticism, calling the ideologies supporting these measures “destructive” or a form of “grandstanding” meant to undercut traditional education.
Mary Sinclair, a board member for the Shawnee Mission School District, said the measures brought forth memories of “toxic years” of education policy under then-Gov. Sam Brownback.
Patrick Woods, of ITC Great Plains, urged legislators to reject policies that could undercut public education funding when they return to Topeka next week.
