Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
photo by: Screen capture/Kansas Reflector
The Senate Education Committee plans a hearing this week at the Capitol on a Senate bill forcing public K-12 districts to return to in-person teaching by March 26 and to never conduct online-only instruction in the future despite health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.
TOPEKA Two influential K-12 education organizations in Kansas perked up when the Senate’s education committee agreed to dive into a bill mandating that in-person instruction resume by March 26 and forbidding local school boards from ever again shifting to online-only instruction for students in kindergarten through high school.
Goessel School District receives donations
GOESSEL Goessel School Board met on Feb. 8 and heard from Superintendent/elementary principal Amanda Lowrance about donations to the athletic department from Leon and Virginia Guhr and also Duane and Agatha Duerksen. The donations will help pay the cost of officials for basketball games. Board chair Kelly Booton wished to thank them for their generosity. The board voted to accept the donations.
Lowrance told the board that Kansas State High School Activities Association rules have changed for spectators at ball games. Previously, two spectators were allowed for each participant. Some schools might choose to keep that limit. However, KSHSAA now allows four spectators for each participant. Therefore, Goessel will now allow four. Social distancing and masks are still required.
photo by: Meeting screenshot/Lawrence school baord
Kansas State Board of Education member Ann Mah speaks to the Lawrence school board on Monday, Feb. 8, 2021, about Kansas Legislature activity that could affect public education funding.
Public education leaders say two bills that state legislators are considering could harm the state’s school funding at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is already punching holes in school districts’ budgets.
One of the bills is a tax reform plan that could lower the state’s revenue by more than a billion dollars over three years, according to the Associated Press. The other one would greatly expand a program that provides tax breaks to organizations that sponsor scholarships for private schools. At a recent Lawrence school board meeting, local education leaders Shannon Kimball and Ann Mah said that if these bills became law, they would give legislators ways to justify cutting school funding.
Pupils in school districts who teach remotely for an extended period of time could use state funds to go to a private school under legislation currently being considered by legislators, the latest front in a brewing school choice battle in the Statehouse.
The debate over education savings accounts, an option currently used by a half-dozen states as a stand-in for school vouchers, comes as lawmakers increasingly signal they will be more aggressive in expanding the state s choice programs, much to the chagrin of public school advocates.
ESAs allow families to access the base per-pupil aid normally given to a public school district to support their child. Those funds can be used for private school tuition, as well as textbooks, education-related therapies and tutoring and expenses related to homeschooling.
Noah Taborda, Kansas Reflector
photo by: Noah Taborda/Kansas Reflector
Rep. Sean Tarwater, R-Stilwell, encourages parents testifying before the House K-12 Budget Committee to find a few good candidates and blow them out, referring to school board members who are not allowing in-person learning, during a hearing Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021, at the Statehouse in Topeka.
TOPEKA In a one-sided, two-and-a-half-hour “informational hearing” Wednesday, a parade of upset parents, children, outspoken doctors and lobbyists vented to Kansas legislators in the House K-12 Budget Committee their frustrations with the shortcomings of remote and hybrid learning.
Republican legislators praised the speakers for their bravery in calling out school boards and exemplary efforts in pushing for children to return to in-person class. Education and school board associations, who were told to submit written testimony only, said frustration from parents is justified but rebuked GOP legislators for capit