The executive board of SPARK, a Kansas committee of appointed leaders proposed late last month to divvy up some $150 million of Kansas federal COVID relief funding. For K-12 schools, $4 million was proposed for electronic access projects and $50 million divided into $1,000 stipends for families of low-income/low performing students to buy approved educational materials and services. The remainder was proposed to go to economic development.
The total American Rescue Plan Act funding for all Kansas institutions named in the legislation will be about $5 billion.
SPARK stands for Strengthening People and Revitalizing Kansas. The executive board is made up of elected officials, business executives and community members. Four advisory panels inform the board after which it recommends allocations to the Kansas State Finance Council, a bi-partisan legislative group chaired by the governor.
While there seems to be a wide consensus among legislators and the public that schools need help, there is little public discussion of how ARPA earmarked for K-12 education will fit into a comprehensive plan to build schools back better.
This is not surprising because COVID caused a range of difficulties for students and schools and the responsibility for addressing those difficulties cannot readily be seen as belonging to any one government entity.
For example, how far will the proposed $4 million go toward making fast and reliable learning technology available for students in all parts of the state? Can the multiple agencies that currently provide government grants and programs for increased broadband also benefit K-12 school technology beyond ARPA funding? Can bundling available funding fully provide needed technology for schools?
Another challenge for the committee is prioritizing allocation. Offering money to families of low-income/high-need students to spend in rebuilding learning lost during COVID could certainly be useful. However, schools face many problems — teacher shortages, substitute teacher shortages, students who are having social/emotional difficulty in returning to traditional learning, students who are not performing at grade level and enrollment decline.
A $1,000 appropriation of $50 million for learning aids would reach only about 500 students out of a total of 471,000 Kansas students.
Bringing into focus resources for K-12 public education from multiple funding pools and making investments that reach the most students most effectively demand a comprehensive plan that will do the following:
* Finish the goal of fast, reliable connectivity for students wherever they are in Kansas and equip students with individual learning devices they can use at school, on a school bus or at home.
* Enable professional development for teachers to be ready for remote or hybrid teaching that includes a flexible implementation plan, if circumstances require such teaching in the future, plus provide opportunity for teachers to learn online instruction skills as needed by their schools.
* Recruit a full, highly qualified, diverse educator work-force that includes teachers, substitutes and other school personnel.
* Reach out to public school experts across the country, Kansas parents and teachers to identify and implement best practices for remediating COVID learning loss, enabling student achievement at grade level and attending to students’ social/emotional difficulties.
SPARK is an apt name for this enormously powerful committee charged to disperse government largess heretofore unimaginable. The committee’s work will have impact for at least a decade. It’s a pivotal moment for Kansas public education. The committee needs to get this right because its choices will be of major public consequence.
Sharon Iorio is Dean Emerita at the Wichita State University College of Education.
