Kansas NEA Legislative Agenda for the 2007 Legislative Session
Kansas public schools are faced with five serious challenges:
Challenge 1: The Achievement Gaps. As reflected in the Kansas State Assessment scores, our public schools are slowly closing the achievement gaps. We know we still have work to do in bringing our economically disadvantaged students, minority students, students with disabilities and recent immigrants to the same high levels of achievement that the majority of Kansas children already meet. It will take additional resources to overcome these disadvantages and close the gaps once and for all.
Senate Bill 549, passed during the 2006 legislative session and approved by the Kansas Supreme Court in their action dismissing the school finance lawsuit, provided dramatic increases in at-risk funding by increasing the at-risk weighting and creating additional at-risk funding for high-poverty school districts and children who are not in poverty but are not scoring at proficient or above on state reading and math assessments.
Challenge 2: Ever-growing challenges in the context of funding actions since 1993. Both the federal government and the State Board of Education have increased their expectations of public schools. At the same time, Congress continues to provide funding for schools at levels far below those authorized by either the No Child Left Behind Act or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Kansas has also experienced cuts in federal funding.
Two legislative studies determined that public school funding was inadequate. The 2005 Special Legislative Session and the 2006 regular Legislative Session provided significant increases in state funding for public education. Yet after several years of flat funding from the State of Kansas , the increases of 2005 and 2006 do not fully restore adequacy to Kansas school funding.
Response to Challenges 1 and 2: Kansas NEA continues to believe that, in order to meet the challenges placed before them and address the cuts in federal funding, public schools must be provided additional resources. Kansas accreditation standards and federal law require continuous improvement in student achievement and the closing of the achievement gap. Schools cannot be expected to meet these challenges without increases in the revenue needed to pay for student support.
Schools face the challenge of preparing Kansas students to play a role in the ever-changing global economy of today. Funding of schools must ensure that schools are able to meet the challenge of addressing 21st century skills for Kansas students.
It is important to remember that, in dismissing the Kansas school finance lawsuit, the Supreme Court did not rule on whether or not the level of funding provided in 2005 and 2006 meets the constitutional standard for provision of suitable finance for public education. Instead, the Court said that there were sufficient changes to the school finance formula to cause it to be a new formula requiring a new challenge of its constitutionality.
In light of this, Kansas NEA believes that the Kansas Legislature must, at a minimum, honor the commitments made in SB 549 for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years. Kansas NEA further believes that as the economy of Kansas continues to improve additional increases in school funding are necessary and justified.
Challenge 3: The Educator Shortage. Kansas schools face the potential for large numbers of retirees from our current teaching force in the next few years. As teaching salaries and benefits become less competitive, Kansas will face both a short- and long-term problem in attracting and retaining quality teachers. Kansas school employees are facing a looming crisis in health care as premium rate increases continue to outstrip the rate of inflation.
Response to Challenge 3: KNEA supports efforts to recruit and retain the best teachers possible for our children. We must make teaching an attractive career opportunity by providing competitive salaries, comprehensive health insurance benefits for employees and their families, and support in the early years of one’s teaching career. Kansas NEA believes that the Kansas Legislature must provide funding for schools in such a way that teacher salaries are enhanced and every school employee has access to affordable, comprehensive health insurance coverage.
Challenge 4: Shifting Funding Sources. As base state aid to schools has fallen behind the rate of inflation, the use of the local option budget, which is largely funded by local property taxes, has quadrupled. The dependence on local property taxes and the addition of the Cost of Living Weighting exacerbate the difficulties that school districts find in providing a high quality education. With the promises of Senate Bill 345 being set aside, higher education has also been forced to shift funding onto students in the form of tuition increases.
Response to Challenge 4: KNEA supports a balanced approach to taxation that is equitable across income levels and across the state. No students should face a shortage of opportunities based on geography or wealth. A comprehensive, high-quality education for every Kansan is the responsibility of the state. Local efforts should be for extraordinary opportunities specific to a local community’s needs.
Kansas NEA further believes that the so-called “Cost of Living Weighting” now permissible under law is patently unfair and must be changed in such a way as to allow for regional variations based on more than just the cost of housing. In addition, since the intent of the Cost of Living Weighting was to ensure that school employees in high-cost areas could afford to reside in those areas, Kansas NEA believes that any funds raised under this weighting must go only to increases in employee salaries and benefits and must be above and beyond any increase in salaries and benefits attributable to other increases in school funding provided by the state.
Challenge 5: The Anti-Government Agenda. Organizations with an agenda that would destroy the ability of state government to address the needs of the citizens of Kansas are making a concerted effort to pass legislation or a constitutional amendment that would place tax and expenditure limits on government. Such limits fundamentally alter and degrade our system of representative government and would destroy the ability of the state to respond to crises or address changes in demographics.
Response to Challenge 5: KNEA opposes any legislation that would limit the ability of the Kansas legislature or local units of government from altering the tax and revenue structure so as to address the needs of citizens. KNEA supports a representative democracy in which legislators are empowered to raise appropriate revenues to meet the needs of the state and in which the judiciary is respected as a check on the power of the legislature.
Legislative Priorities
To address these challenges and provide the resources necessary to maintain excellence and continued improvement, Kansas NEA believes the Legislature must:
- Honor the commitments of Senate Bill 549 for school years 2007-08 and 2008-09,
-
Adjust the funding levels for school years 2007-08 and 2008-09 to reflect changes in educational costs over time, and allow all districts to recruit and retain competent, caring and qualified teachers and school leaders and meet operating costs,
-
Establish weighting factors that support all children in meeting high standards of academic performance based on school size, at-risk, bilingual and special education, and regional variations,
-
Fully fund special education,
-
Fully fund early childhood and all-day kindergarten programs,
-
Encourage school districts and school employees to join the state health insurance plan by:
-
Providing incentives for school districts entering the state plan,
-
Ensuring that such plans provide support for families as well as employees, and
-
Maintaining one experience pool for all members of the state plan,
- Protect and improve the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System,
- Ensure the employment rights of all teachers are protected,
-
Resist all efforts to define a “suitable education” in ways that diminish curriculum offerings and co-curricular and extra-curricular opportunities for Kansas students.
-
Resist all efforts to hamper the abililty of the Kansas legislature to address the revenue needs of the state through either constitutional tax and expenditure limits such as the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) or statutory tax and expenditure limits such as the so-called Taxpayer Empowerment Act (TEA).
|
Archives
Printer friendly
E-mail
Subscibe