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This week’s links:

• Click here for KNEA’s Finance in Focus: HB 2986
• Click here for the KSDE – what would each district receive under HB 2986?
• Click here to read the actual bill
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House Select Committee comes up with a school finance plan!

The House Select Committee on School Finance put out the first serious school finance plan of the session on Thursday morning. It is contained in House Bill 2986.

As expected the plan is a three-year phase in and, by the 2008-09 school year would provide about $500 million in additional funding for K-12 education in Kansas. The plan focuses on at-risk funding and accountability. Among its provisions are:

• An increase in the at-risk weighting from the current 0.193 to 0.484 in 2008-09. In addition there is a modified “urban poverty index” as proposed in the Legislative Post Audit Division report. Instead of offering this additional funding on the basis of density of poverty, the Select Committee plan provides the funding to school districts with a per pupil density of 212.1 students per square mile and 35.1% of its students on free lunch. Eligible districts would get an addition 0.242 by 2008-09. The total weighting for these districts would be .726 – exactly what the LPA proposed. While the LPA study gave this extra weighting to USD 500 Kansas City, USD 501 Topeka, USD 202 Turner, and USD 259 Wichita, this proposal would add USD 308 Hutchinson and USD 453 Leavenworth to the list.
• Correlation weighting would be called “High Enrollment Equalization Factor” and would drop by 90 students over the three years from the current 1662 to 1572. This helps mid-size and large school districts. The proposal does not otherwise change low-enrollment weighting.
• Vocational weighting would be increased from 0.50 to 0.62 but fewer programs would be funded. Districts could only count those programs for which the course content is the same as those in technical schools, technical colleges, or other post-secondary institutions. The new weighting means there would be no reduction in the overall vocational funding level.
• Base State Aid Per Pupil (BSAPP) would see a $50 increase in year one, $49 in year two, and $35 in year three.

The bill will also have new accountability requirements on school districts including required annual reports on at-risk programs, preschool-aged at-risk programs, bilingual programs, and vocational programs. Before creating a budget every school district will have to conduct a needs analysis of each individual attendance center. And if a school is not meeting accreditation standards or student standards, or not offering the state required curriculum, the State Board can require the school district to reallocate all of that school’s funding to meeting the identified problem.

A hearing on the bill has been scheduled for next Wednesday and Thursday with possible committee action on Friday.

To see our Finance Plan in Focus on the Select Committee’s plan (HB 2986), click here.

It’s official! You’re disposable!

Senate Bill 461, the disposable worker bill that is designed to deny workers compensation benefits to most Kansas workers was approved in the full Senate on a vote of 28 to 12.

Voting to abandon older workers, returning Iraq war veterans, fire fighters and every other working Kansan so that insurance companies can make bigger profits, 28 Republican Senators enthusiastically voted in favor of SB 461. Only two Republicans stood up for working Kansans – Roger Reitz of Manhattan and Phil Journey of Wichita joined with all 10 Democrats in opposing the bill.

Voting to strip you of workers compensation benefits were: Barbara Allen, Pat Apple, Jim Barnett, Karin Brownlee, Terry Bruce, Pete Brungardt, Jay Emler, Tim Huelskamp, Nick Jordan, Carolyn McGinn, Steve Morris, Kay O’Connor, Ralph Ostmeyer, Peggy Palmer, Mike Peterson, Roger Pine, Dennis Pyle, Derek Schmidt, Vickie Schmidt, Jean Schodorf, Mark Taddiken, Ruth Teichman, Dwayne Umbarger, John Vratil, Susan Wagle, Dennis Wilson, and David Wysong.

Senator Jay Emler has tried to explain his vote as a way to “force the parties to the table to negotiate.” Now that Senator Emler and 28 others have voted to give one party – KCCI – everything they want, why should KCCI go to the table?

And proving that politics is more important than protecting workers, some Senators who voted to stop this bill in past legislative sessions – Senators like Tim Huelskamp – jumped on Susan Wagle’s anti-worker bandwagon. They want this bill on the Governor’s desk so she will veto it and they can run attack ads calling her anti-business.

SB 461: More politics than policy

With this bill the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry has a goal: stop paying benefits to injured workers.

Conservative Republicans have a goal: trash Governor Sebelius and elect a conservative ideologue to the Governor’s office.

The two got together and were supported by moderate Republicans on Senate Bill 461 as the way to achieve their goals.

Make no mistake about it; passage of SB 461 is not about making good policy. It is all about putting a bill wanted by “business” on the Governor’s desk that is so evil – so anti-worker – that she has no choice but to veto it. You can be sure that the KCCI, the Kansas Republican Assembly, and the Kansas Club for Growth are already drooling over proposed anti-Sebelius campaign attack ads.

Does Kansas need this workers compensation “reform?”

• Kansas employers pay the 6^th lowest workers compensation insurance premiums in the United States.
• Kansas employees receive the 4^th lowest workers compensation benefits in the United States.
• Kansas is 6^th in profitability for insurance companies on workers compensation in the United States.

Senate Bill 461 guarantees even lower premiums for Kansas business, even greater profits for insurance companies, and lower benefits for injured Kansas workers.

• Lower premiums for Kansas business,
• Bigger profits for Kansas insurance companies,
• Lower benefits for injured Kansas workers.

Who wants this bill? The Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry, big insurance executives, and Kansas conservative candidate for Lieutenant Governor Susan Wagle (a member of the Committee that approved the bill).

This anti-worker bill now goes to the House for consideration.

Sex Ed Curriculum bill passes Senate

The Senate also took up sex education this week, passing SB 508 out of the Education Committee and then taking it to a floor vote.

The bill would reinstate statutorily sex ed curriculum requirements that were allowed to lapse by the State Board of Education. The bill requires a sex ed program to emphasize abstinence and provide students with age-appropriate and medically accurate information. It also maintained the current opt-out provision under which all students would participate in the class unless their parents opt them out.

An amendment by Senator Kay O’Connor (R-Olathe) would change the bill to include an opt-in provision under which no child would participate unless the parent chose to opt the child in to the class. Her motion failed on a vote of 12-25.

On final action, SB 508 passed on a vote of 27-13.

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Turn Around: a little break for legislators (and lobbyists)

We have now reached turn around – the time by which all bills must be approved by the chamber of origin. Both chambers adjourned today – the House before noon and the Senate by about 6:30.

Monday will be a day off and Tuesday will be “pro forma,” a day on which they simply show up but no work gets done. We will likely not have a report until Wednesday.

Enjoy the turn around break!

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.