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March 14, 2003

KASB starts week with attack on school employees

To start off the week in the Senate Education Committee, KASB announced their opposition to HB 2179, a bill that would repeal the prohibition on school employees serving on the State Board of Education.

School employees are the only professionals in the state of Kansas who are statutorily prohibited from serving on their oversight and licensing board. Physicians, attorneys, nurses, even cosmetologists serve on their boards – only school employees are prohibited by law from having a say in how their profession is governed. And the Kansas Association of School Boards thinks that’s a good idea. (Don’t forget, this is the same group that proposed legislation making it impossible to recall school board members for incompetence or misconduct in office.)

House Bill 2179 passed the House Education Committee on a voice vote and subsequently passed the full house on a vote of 112-8. KNEA is working hard to shore up support in the Senate.

Education community takes heat in House Taxation Committee

The House Taxation Committee held a hearing on HB 2066 and SB 162, two identical bills which extend the 20 mill statewide property tax levy for schools for another two years. Mark Tallman of KASB represented the school finance coalition in support of the bills. No action was taken but many of the committee questions focused on why the state just doesn’t let every individual local community figure out how much they want to spend and then do it.

“Our position has to be based on helping all Kansas children,” said KNEA Lobbyist Mark Desetti. “If the legislature had funded education to the level called for in their own study of school funding, then local efforts would truly be for enrichment. Instead we have had to rely on the LOB to make up for a lack of state funding.”

Senate votes to change “inservice” to “professional development”

The Senate Education Committee held a hearing on House Bill 2006 which renames the state in-service education act as the education professional development act. While the change is small, it is appropriate given current thinking about improving practice. KNEA President Christy Levings testified in favor of the change. The bill passed the committee on a voice vote and was passed by the whole Senate on Thursday on a vote of 40-0.

The House and Senate both passed the bill without amendment so it will now go Governor Sebelius for her signature.

Simple “repealers” turn into nightmare in House Ed Committee

Senate Bill 82 was meant to be a simple bill to repeal outdated statutes. A number of statutes were listed as “repealers” by the State Department of Education but in the Senate Education Committee, KASB asked that two additional items be added to the bill. These two items were not pure “repealers;” instead they were amendments to two current statutes.

The first would have eliminated the requirement that school districts in cities of the first class annually cause to be published in the newspaper the salaries of school administrators.

Debate in the House Education Committee on this issue was spirited to say the least. Some legislators want to publish salaries to prove that school districts spend far too much money out of the classroom; others argued that with school district boundaries that do not match city boundaries this requirement from the 1950’s is long overdue for repeal. There is some talk in the education committee of amending the statute to direct school districts to provide the information to newspapers but let newspapers determine whether or not to publish it.

The Committee was unable to come to a conclusion and will revisit the issue on Monday of next week.

KASB’s second amendment would have eliminated the requirement that school districts file their employee evaluation system with the State Department of Education.

Dueling sales tax bills introduced

A battle is brewing over the legitimacy of using local sales taxes to fund public education in individual counties. The issue has come up because Johnson County residents approved a sales tax increase to raise money for Johnson County school districts. A lawsuit has since been filed challenging this tax.

House Bill 2427 would make such sales tax provisions illegal while Senate Bill 258 would allow them. It will be fascinating to watch what happens if both bills pass!

The whole issue would be moot if the state legislature had kept school funding increases in line with inflation. Then local efforts such as the LOB would truly be for enrichment purposes. Instead, inadequate school funding has led school districts to rely more and more on the LOB to fill the gap and leaving local schools desperate to find ways to provide enrichment opportunities.

Senate Ed revisits structure of SBOE

On Thursday, the Senate Education Committee turned its attention once again to what to do about the State Board of Education. The return to a five/five ideological split has caused many legislators to once again consider changing the structure of the Board.

Among the proposals before the committee are three resolutions which call for a constitutional amendment and one bill. Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 1601 would replace the elected board with a 9-member board appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. SCR 1611 would have local school boards elect the State Board. An as-yet-unnumbered resolution would keep the elected board but add three gubernatorial appointees and remove the Board’s self-executing authority. The bill, SB 190, would make state board elections non-partisan and move them to the spring local board elections.

The Committee intends to take up all these ideas and decide next Tuesday which path, if any, they wish to take.

What to do about the KPERS unfunded actuarial liability

On Thursday, the Senate Ways and Means Committee heard a presentation from KPERS on ideas for dealing with the growing unfunded actuarial liability. Under consideration are Pension Obligation Bonds. These bonds could be issued at a low interest rate. Then, if KPERS investments pay off at a higher rate over time, the difference between the low interest on the bonds and the higher earnings on the investments could be applied to the unfunded liability. Other states have also considered this option.

As a result, Committee discussed and took action on SB 260 on Friday. This bill would authorize the Kansas Development Finance Authority to issue pension obligation bonds for up to $750 million and beginning in 2006 phase in an increase in the employer contribution to KPERS. The intent of the bill is to deal with the growing unfunded liability. The Committee passed the bill out with a favorable recommendation and it will now go to the full Senate.

Full Senate approves changing technical college governance

Senate Bill 7, which requires that degree-granting technical colleges have independent governing boards, passed the full Senate on a vote of 35-5. The bill impacts institutions in Atchison, Emporia, Manhattan, and Wichita.

KNEA had expressed concern that the bill did not address the earned rights and benefits of the employees in these institutions. KNEA President Christy Levings and Lobbyist Mark Desetti had both urged senators to ensure that the rights of employees were protected and that the K-12 school districts not experience a negative fiscal impact as a result of the separation.

Proponents of the bill have suggested that the two year time line for development of a transition plan allows for plenty of time for the resolution of such issues.

The bill now moves to the House where it will likely be referred to the House Higher Education Committee. KNEA will carry the same concerns before that committee.

KNEA Legislative Contacts

Blake West, President
Mark Desetti, Director, Legislative and Political Advocacy
Terry Forsyth, Director, Political Action

The KNEA Lobby Team consists of elected leaders and staff. The Lobby Team welcomes member feedback on issues before the Legislature and on this site.