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March 10, 2008

House Ed Subcommittee on Alternative Licensure

The Subcommittee on HB 2903 met again today to continue work on HB 2903, the bill that would allow a school district to create a teacher preparation program. The bill was initially drafted by Wichita USD 259.

Wichita USD 259 asked KNEA to weigh in on the original bill draft and indicated that they wanted to meet our needs. Our position has always been the same: we don’t surrender program quality just because we need more teachers. With that in mind, a “balloon amendment” was drafted that ensured any district program would meet the same standards as a college or university based program and that district programs would stand for program review.

In the subcommittee today, a motion was made to adopt the balloon amendment. That motion passed. The bill was then tabled so the subcommittee could consider the idea of a resolution instead. A resolution would call upon stakeholders to review and report on alternative teacher preparation in Kansas but would not create a new program.

It quickly became clear that the subcommittee members are leaning towards the resolution instead of HB 2903. After discussion of a conceptual resolution, staff was sent off to draft an actual resolution for discussion purposes. We anticipate another meeting of the subcommittee some time this week.

Senate Ed Committee on Virtual Schools

The Senate Education Committee held a hearing today on SB 669 which makes changes to laws regarding virtual schools. The bill came from a virtual schools subcommittee chaired by Senator John Vratil (R-Leawood).

The bill does three things:

1. It establishes a funding formula for virtual schools that includes how to determine the full time equivalent status of virtual school students and then to multiply that by 114% of base state aid per pupil,
2. it provides for training of teachers working in virtual schools, and
3. it includes accountability for student progress and state assessments in virtual schools.

KNEA testified as neutral on the bill. We told the committee that our neutrality was based primarily on being unsure as to whether or not the new funding provision was the right one. Said KNEA lobbyist Mark Desetti, “The new funding system would provide consistency and it appears on the surface to make some sense. We just aren’t sure what the exact need in terms of funding might be.”

KNEA also took the committee members copies of the publication Guide to Online High School Courses. This guide was developed by NEA in collaboration with the American Association of School Administrators, the National Association of School Boards, the National Association of State Boards of Education, CNA Corporation, IBM Corporation, and Verizon Communications. The publication can be found online at http://www.nea.org/technology/images/02onlinecourses.pdf.

Desetti said that the guide could form the foundation of future discussion on virtual schools and online learning. Blake West, KNEA president, served on the committee that wrote the guide.

The committee voted to pass the bill out favorably. It now goes to the full Senate for consideration.

House Tax Committee passes sales tax exemption bill

The House Taxation Committee passed out HB 2938, the bill that would standardize sales tax exemption policies for 501(c) (3) non-profit charitable organizations.

Under current law, each organization that wants a sales tax exemption can come before the committee and request one. Such requests are rarely denied. As a result the list of sales tax exemptions in statute has climbed to quadruple a as they are numbered alphabetically.

This bill would grandfather in all current exemptions and establish that new exemptions would be available to certain non-profits on the purchases they make for their own operation and on the sales of tickets to isolated fundraising events.

While KNEA supports this standardization as part of stabilizing state tax policy, we are concerned about the price tag of bringing many more non-profits into the sales tax exemption arena.

KNEA, in partnership with KASB and Kansas Action for Children, has been advocated for an independent review of the Kansas tax system with an eye to bringing it into balance among tax sources and establishing fairness for Kansas citizens and Kansas businesses.

This bill now goes to the full House for consideration.

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