• KNEA Legislative Agenda
• Legislative Issues
• Legislative Week in Review
• School Funding Central
• State Board News
• Take Action Now (LAC)
• Under the Dome Today

March 11, 2008

House Ed: Hearing and working!

The House Education Committee got right to work today holding hearings on two bills, passing three out of committee, debating one without taking action, and beginning conceptual discussion on another.

Taking each in turn, here’s what happened:

Up first for hearing was Senate Bill 420 by Senator John Vratil (R-Leawood). This bill which passed the Senate on a vote of 38 – 0 would repeal the original 1951 continuing contract act. Over in the Senate, KNEA testified against SB 420 because of the potential for “unforeseen consequences.” While there is another continuing contract provision in statute and Sen. Vratil considers the one being repealed as simply “duplicative,” KNEA suggested that it is better to leave what has been working well for a lot of years untouched. And while Senator Vratil shrugged off our concerns since we are unable to tell him exactly what will happen, we will simply watch and be prepared to litigate should anything change.

Next up was Senate Bill 470. This bill is a technical clean-up that should illustrate our problem with SB 420 – the law of unintended consequences. Last year, the Legislature passed a bill requested by Sen. Vicki Schmidt (R-Topeka) and crafted by Sen. Vratil to fix a time-line problem in the school safety and security act. The change dealt with notification of law enforcement of a violation of the act which would result in the suspension of the violator’s driver’s license. Unfortunately an unintended consequence of last year’s act created a violation of the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). SB 470 is intended to resolve that unintended consequence.

After these two hearings, the committee turned to working bills.

The committee passed out the ROTC scholarship bill, SB 437, with very little discussion. It now goes to the full House. If it passes the House without any floor amendments, it will go to the Governor’s desk for a signature. This bill allows ROTC scholarships at community colleges in partnership with another ROTC scholarship granting institution.

Next the committee passed HB 2714, the military compact bill. This is a bill that needs to be passed by a certain number of states to go into effect. It will streamline the forwarding of records between schools for the children of military personnel. Such children change schools quite frequently and the need for an efficient transfer of records is critical.

The committee began working SB 507, the Mathematics, Engineering, Technology, and Science (METS) commission bill. This bill establishes a METS commission within the Department of Commerce to oversee and advise of issues of math and science education. This is where things got lively. The first objection raised was placing the commission in the Department of Commerce instead of Education. Many committee members felt that a commission to advise on math and science education in our k-12 schools belongs in the Department of Education.

The discussion then centered on the formation of a commission with almost no representation from educators with the express charge of advising schools on education. The bill implied to some members that school personnel were not bright enough to handle issues of instruction and education and needed advice and counsel from non-educators to get things right.

In the end, Chairman Clay Aurand (R-Courtland) opted to end discussion of the bill. He suggested that interested committee members – supporters of the bill and those with concerns – could meet in an ad hoc fashion to see if they could craft an acceptable compromise. If they do so, he will entertain further discussion later.

Next up was Senate Bill 420 (see above). This bill was passed and recommended for placement on the consent calendar. This means the bill would not be subject to debate and amendment and in three days would be considered passed by the full House unless someone chose to take it off the consent calendar.

Chairman Aurand then told the committee that they will be considering SB 404, the bill that deals with tuition, fees, and residency at the Kansas Academy of Math and Science (KAMS) housed at Fort Hays State University. The bill directs that the base state aid per pupil generated by a high school student attending KAMS be paid to KAMS by the student’s home district. In the home district the student would generate BSAPP and any applicable weightings. The weightings would stay in the home district and the student’s state assessment scores would count for the home district.

Aurand told the committee that, when the bill is formally debated, he was considering an amendment to send the weightings to KAMS as well. This immediately touched off some discussion but, since the bill was not being worked today, that discussion will remain for another day.

Tomorrow the committee will take up mandatory kindergarten and lowering the compulsory attendance age from seven to six.

KNEA distributes recruitment and retention white paper to House Education Committee members

KNEA lobbyist Mark Desetti was called on by Chairman Aurand to briefly talk to the committee about KNEA’s position on HB 2870 and to distribute the document, Great Teachers for 21st Century Schools: a realistic plan to address the recruitment and retention of teachers.

Desetti reminded the committee of HB 2870 – the math and science teacher bonus bill which was defeated on the House floor – and urged them to involve teachers in the discussions of how best to address the teacher shortage and recruitment and retention of teachers. He distributed the white paper to the committee members and urged them to take a close look at it. Said Desetti, “We urge the committee to consider addressing these issues in a comprehensive way. This white paper provides a blueprint for such an approach.”

Over the next few days the white paper will be distributed along with a memo from KNEA President Blake West to all members of the House and Senate. KNEA Director of Instructional Advocacy Peg Dunlap presented the paper to the State Board of Education at their meeting this morning.

You can find the white paper on the KNEA website at the following URL: http://ks.nea.org/images/recruitandretainteachers.pdf

Obscenity amendment to get a hearing on Thursday

Get ready for the next big thing! Senate Bill 492 comes to the House Education Committee for a hearing on Thursday. This bill started as a proposal to lift the permanent ban on a teacher’s license for anyone convicted of a misdemeanor DUI. Under current law, if a teacher or prospective teacher is convicted of a misdemeanor DUI, he/she can never be issued a teaching license or have one renewed. While the bill would lift the ban on misdemeanors, it would retain it for a felony DUI.

On the Senate floor an amendment by Sen. Karin Brownlee (R-Olathe) was adopted that would require any materials used by teachers to be pre-approved by the local board of education. Here’s how the amendment reads:

[New Sec. 2. (a) A teacher shall not read, use or display in a school any material for which an affirmative defense to prosecution may be asserted under subsection (b)(2) of K.S.A. 21-4301a or subsection (c)(2) of 21-4301c, and amendments thereto, unless such use, reading or display has been approved by the board of education of the school district in which such school is located. [(b) A principal of a school shall not allow any person to read, use or display in a school any material for which an affirmative defense to prosecution may be asserted under subsection (b)(2) of K.S.A. 21-4301a or subsection (c)(2) of 21-4301c, and amendments thereto, unless such use, reading or display has been approved by the board of education of the school district in which such school is located.]

The “affirmative defense to prosecution” refers to the teacher’s option to defend the use of materials on the basis of educational merit. For example, if a teacher were to be charged under the obscenity laws with promoting obscenity because she had her literature students read To Kill a Mockingbird because the book discusses rape, the affirmative defense allows the teacher to defend herself because of the place the book holds in respect to 20^th century American literature.

Under the Brownlee amendment the teacher who uses that book would be committing a crime if the book was not pre-approved by the local school board.

In a high school, teachers could probably generate reading lists that could be pre-approved and then agree not to use other books and so be protected. In elementary schools, this might be more problematic as teachers often use books to react to current events or simply because the children find them humorous. Is Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen obscene? It does show a nude toddler. Is Captain Underpants obscene?

The most likely outcome if this were to pass would be the “chilling effect” it would have on teachers and teaching. High school teachers might decide not to even submit a title because some parent might be offended; elementary teachers would likely stop using personal collections gathered over the years because of their tie-in to certain units of study.

We are hopeful that the House committee will remove the Brownlee amendment before passing the bill out to the full House. But in any event, we urge teachers to be ready to act on this matter. Whatever happens, unless the bill is just killed in the House, this issue is likely to come up again – either in floor debate or during conference committee discussions.

KNEA Under the Dome Archives
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005