Latest news with #KansasStateBoardofEducation
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
GOP state Board of Education members decry strings often attached to federal funding
Michelle Dombrosky, an Olathe member of the Kansas State Board of Education, was among three members sharing concern about the board's practice of routinely voting to accept federal grant funding for programs in public school districts. The frustration is tied to apprehension about government spending as well as strings attached to federal grants. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — A trio of Republican members on the Kansas State Board of Education shared frustration with routine acceptance of federal grants for education programs that include policy mandates contrary to political perspectives of many of their constituents. During recent meetings of the state Board of Education, members Debby Potter of Garden Plain, Connie O'Brien of Tonganoxie and Michelle Dombrosky of Olathe shared objections to linking federal spending to policy. Attorneys with the state Board of Education and Kansas State Department of Education warned the 10-member board to give careful consideration to votes on federal grants to avoid undermining operation of school districts statewide. 'If we just vote 'no' on money, then where does that leave us?' said state board chairperson Cathy Hopkins of Hays. 'What is the plan?' Dombrosky, who won election to the board in 2018 and reelection in 2022, said federal aid to schools was infected with ill-conceived mandates put in place by the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden. Objectionable ideas attached to education grants made it into books and other classroom resources, she said. Republican President Donald Trump is in the process of reversing Biden-era mandates, she said. 'A lot of parents went crazy over the curriculum that was coming into our school system,' she said. 'Now, we have a new administration that's in there that's pulling these things back, because people voted for that. People wanted that out of there. They wanted it out of the school system.' She said the state's acceptance of federal aid placed local Kansas school districts in a quandary. 'Sounds to me like we've fostered a dependency on the federal money,' Dombrosky said. 'If this money were to go away tomorrow, would it stand alone on merit?' O'Brien, a former member of the Kansas House who won election to the state board in 2024, said excessive spending across government and mounting debt at the federal level necessitated cuts in expenditures. She also expressed opposition to anchoring policy to federal grants. 'When I talk to people, they're concerned about taxes,' she said. 'At some point, we need to start reining in the spending part and we're going to have to do it in education, health care, everything.' Potter, also elected last year to the state board, has said obligations attached to federal grants sought to diminish the influence of parents who were responsible for deciding the type of education provided their children. The federal government is an intrusion into the relationship between parents and teachers, she said. Potter said she was eager to create an environment that restored public faith in the state Board of Education. 'I'm trying to change the culture, somewhat, of the board,' Potter said. She said she wanted more information included in official minutes of monthly state board meetings so Kansans had a better idea what transpired and what was said on financial and policy matters. 'We have constituents that do not trust the administration, and the administration has not earned my trust either,' she said. Scott Gordon, general counsel to the Kansas State Department of Education, said most federally funded programs included measures intended to hold recipients accountable. Failure to comply could place the entirety of funding at risk, he said. 'Generally, there is an all-or-none approach to compliance,' Gordon said. 'You don't get to comply with 75% or 80% of the federal requirements and still get to keep all the money.' For example, he said, on April 8 the state board voted on a motion to earmark $20,000 in federal funds to sponsor public service announcements with information about where children could receive free meals during summer months. The 5-5 tie vote was equivalent to rejection of the motion, which meant opponents Dombrosky, P0tter, O'Brien, Dennis Hershberger and Danny Zeck, all Republicans, were successful in blocking expenditure of those federal dollars to inform children and families. That federal funding previously created a 1:3 match, meaning the $20,000 investment generated the equivalent of $60,000 in advertising in Kansas. Gordon said the board's vote on the $20,000 allocation was the type that theoretically could threaten Kansas' free- and reduced-lunch program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The state Department of Education has the option of seeking an alternative funding source for promoting the summer food program, he said. 'It doesn't just hurt the board or the department,' he said. 'It hurts the people that are relying on that money.' Mark Ferguson, who has provided legal counsel to the state Board of Education since 2009, said the recommendation wasn't that board members should continue federal programs just because the state had done so for years. 'There's not an expectation that you continue to just rubber stamp those things,' he said. He urged the state Board of Education to work through funding or policy issues in a way that provided due process to recipients of those programs. Due process included notice to Kansans about potential changes and granted people an opportunity to share their views, he said. He said the state board hadn't previously incorporated the due process piece into decision making because, as a whole, actions of the state board on federal programs largely maintained the status quo. Change in the state board's membership altered the dynamic sufficiently to warrant adoption of due process guidelines, he said. 'I would encourage the board, if making decisions that negatively impact others, to factor in due process,' Ferguson said. 'Let's not just vote 'no' and take that away. Let's anticipate that decision, give notice to the public and get some input so that's not just the rug being pulled out in the 11th hour.'
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kansas' education commissioner works for student success in high-stakes, political realm
Randy Watson, commissioner of the Kansas State Department of Education, speaks on the Kansas Reflector podcast about vouchers, curriculum, compensation, school meals and the legacy of No Child Left Behind. (Anna Kaminski/Kansas Reflector) TOPEKA — Kansas State Department of Education commissioner Randy Watson has an unobstructed view of financial, political and social battles about how best to educate nearly 500,000 school children in Kansas. In addition to regular collaboration with members of the Kansas State Board of Education, he routinely visits classrooms to absorb perspectives on everything from the basics of reading and math to human sexuality, special education, summer school and the training of current and future teachers. He wades into issues of access to computer technology and cellphones in schools. He's there for debates on appropriation of state and federal tax dollars to public education, as well as how that funding was deployed in more than 280 local school districts across Kansas. 'What makes me want to get up in the morning is trying to help young people and the people that serve those young people do their job well. There's rarely a week that I'm not in schools,' Watson said on the Kansas Reflector podcast. 'I not a politician, but I deal in a political environment all the time. At the end of the day, again, what gets me up is: How can we help people that educate kids have a great environment to do so?' The state Board of Education has a constitutional responsibility for public education in Kansas and the duty to hire a state education commissioner to assist with crafting policy, rules and regulations aimed at fulfilling the promise of education in preschool to high school classrooms. Watson, a former teacher and superintendent, recently recommended the state Board of Education and local school boards consider working together on a special summer school program to help the students in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and grades 1 and 2 gain some academic ground in the subjects of reading and math. The COVID-19 pandemic set children back at all levels, he said, but recovery has been influenced by separate decisions to reduce the number of school days while maintaining the required total of annual hours of instruction. 'A lot of research says if you're not at that grade level by the time you hit third grade, it's really hard to catch up, and most do not,' he said. 'In fact, more fall further behind.' He said a summer program would be voluntary for students and could involve 90 minutes of instruction daily. Students could come together for four-day weeks and gain about 50 hours of instruction time, he said. 'If that was with one of our many great teachers in Kansas, what could we do? We could stop the summer slide for sure,' he said. Of course, the Kansas Legislature and the state's governor have large roles in terms of funding and policy of public education. That involves politics and, at times, controversy. Members of the 2025 Legislature attempted, but failed, to gain traction with a bill providing as much as $125 million in annual state funding in the form of state income tax breaks to families of students in private schools. Similar proposals to ease the financial burden of enrolling 26,000 students to accredited and unaccredited private schools have surfaced in Kansas, but those also met the fate of Senate Bill 75. The bill introduced by Republican Sen. Renee Erickson, a former middle school principal in Wichita, didn't advance in the House or Senate. 'Some states have gone full force into that,' Watson said. 'Other states have pulled back. Some states have put that up to a vote. I can tell you currently where the state board is on that. They believe that public funds should go to public education.' Watson, too, observed as the Legislature placed in state law, despite Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto, contents of a bill that dealt on two objectives. Part of the bill granted the state Board of Education authority to set compensation of elected board members, while the balance mandated public schools that teach anything about human development to also present students with a computer-generated animation or high-definition ultrasound video of fetal development. The law says the presentation must last at least 3 minutes. A battle between Kansans for Life and Planned Parenthood illustrated the core of the bill was about influencing opinions of school children on abortion rights, which were affirmed by the Kansas Supreme Court and by Kansas voters. Statehouse debate on the fetal development curriculum bill touched on the state Board of Education's constitutional role in establishing educational standards and the responsibility of local school boards to determine precise curriculum. 'The state board was opposed to that bill. It had nothing to do with the content,' Watson said. 'What is shown in a video is a local board decision, and the state board said, while we may or may not like the contents, that is a local decision, and we don't think the Kansas Legislature should weigh in on it.' In terms of compensation, the Legislature maneuvered to nearly double their own salaries on Jan. 1. The decision was made to decouple the state Board of Education from the Legislature in terms of daily compensation for travel costs and expenses tied to work for the state. Toward the end of the 2025 session, a bill surfaced with the human development curriculum mandate and a provision directing the state Board of Education to set its own compensation rate. It didn't include funding to the state Board of Education to address any costs. The state Board of Education plans to take up the issue during a meeting in May. 'They'll certainly have to do something with it, because the new law says you shall set your rate. So even if they set it where it is now, they're going to have to take some action to do that,' Watson said. In January, the governor proposed the Legislature pay the cost of meals for children enrolled in the state's reduced-price school meal program. She suggested lawmakers allocate $5.5 million to provide free rather than subsidized meals to about 36,000 students statewide. With federal assistance, Kansas currently provides free meals to about 40% of students in public schools or approximately 200,000 youths. Kelly's idea was for the state to cover the reduced-meal cost for each child at 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. 'We can reduce childhood hunger, we can reduce the stigma our low-income students face in our school cafeterias, and we can increase academic success,' Kelly said. Watson said the Republican-led Legislature didn't buy into the governor's idea for supplementing the cost of school meals for children in lower-income families. 'What Governor Kelly was proposing is putting some state money into that, but that was not adopted in this legislative session,' he said. Watson also reflected on lessons learned through former President George W. Bush's ambitious No Child Left Behind program from 2002 to 2015. It was designed to hold schools accountable for learning among all students, including subgroups of low-income students, students with disabilities and students of color. The objective was to have every student reach proficient levels in math and reading. NCLB became controversial because it penalized schools that didn't show annual improvement on standardized student tests. State assessments should be viewed as a measure of how students were doing academically instead of the lone metric of success or failure, Watson said. 'President Bush was thinking, we want kids to learn how to read and do math. It's a great goal. It's a noble goal. And I would applaud that,' Watson said. 'When we put that into law, I don't think he could have foreseen what the consequences were going to be if you were going to require that. What happened is that, at least in Kansas, I won't speak to other states, but I think it's pretty typical teachers said, 'Well, then we won't teach science. We won't teach social studies. Oh, we'll cut recess out. We teach to that test because it became so high stakes.' ' He said NCLB affirmed chasing student test scores just to obtain a mark acceptable to politicians shouldn't be the primary focus of a classroom teacher, school principal, district superintendent or school board member.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Editor's lens captures emotions and oddities as Kansas Statehouse session grinds to a halt
Carolyn Wims-Campbell, a Senate Democratic aide and former Kansas State Board of Education member, watches the April 9, 2025, investigative proceedings alongside Mark McCormick, executive director of the Kansas Black Leadership Council and a Kansas Reflector columnist. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) Believe it or not, the Kansas Statehouse is a real place. It might sound like a state of mind or a setting for a basic cable crime drama, but the imposing limestone monolith actually exists. Lawmakers, journalists, advocates and everyday Kansans fill its halls and chambers. They vote, testify, chat and drink coffee. Kansas Reflector editor in chief Sherman Smith takes pictures. He's equipped with a digital camera and high-powered lens, and during the past week he captured moments throughout the building. I've assembled a batch for you today, to appreciate the people and work that occurs in Topeka every session. As I tell Kansans repeatedly during Kansas Reflector town halls across the state, the Statehouse belongs to you. Legislators only serve at your pleasure. You require no appointment to visit, no reason other than idle curiosity. The more folks who visit, the more who treat the magnificent place as their birthright (because it is), the better for all of us. Browse and enjoy. Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kansas Legislature yet to approve $875 million in property tax funding for K-12 public schools
A deputy commissioner of the Kansas State Department of Education informed members of the Kansas State Board of Education the 2025 Legislature has yet to approve collection of an estimated $875 million in property taxes to fund public education statewide in 2025-2026. (Kansas Reflector screen capture of Board of Education livestream) TOPEKA — The Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature returns to work Thursday after neglecting to perform during the regular part of the 2025 session an annual obligation to affirm collection of $875 million in property taxes to finance public schools statewide. It's assumed by education administrators and advocates the wrap-up portion of the legislative session — typically reserved for attempts to override vetoes by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly — would allow time for passage of a bill clarifying the 2025-2026 funding picture for school districts serving more than 450,000 students throughout the state. 'Unless they fix that this week, that's an $875 million hole in next year's budget,' said Frank Harwood, deputy commissioner of fiscal and administrative services at the Kansas State Department of Education. He said the Legislature could take advantage of the brief end-of-session window to address a bill triggering collection of 20 mills in property tax for public schools. State law requires every school district levy a 20-mill tax on property in their district to help finance public education. This money didn't stay in the taxing district, but was sent to the state to create the pool of money to fund all districts. 'If this doesn't get dealt with, we're going to be coming back for a special session,' said Sen. Cindy Holscher, a Democrat from Overland Park. Without the property tax levy, the Legislature would have to replace the revenue with an appropriation from the general treasury or reduce funding to public school districts. The Legislature risked running afoul of Kansas Supreme Court decisions in the Gannon case that resulted from a finding the Legislature failed to abide by the Kansas Constitution in terms of funding a suitable education for children. Meanwhile, a second education budget issue emerged regarding the Legislature's decision to designate $1.25 million for public schools and $250,000 to private schools for CPR training and to acquire defibrillator or AED equipment. The appropriation, inspired by survival of an Emporia teenager who suffered cardiac arrest, would be drawn from an anticipated increase in base-aid school funding. This category of K-12 funding was adjusted annually based on changes in the Midwest version of the consumer price index for urban consumers or CPI-U. Leah Fliter, assistant executive director of the Kansas Association of School Boards, said CPI-U funding was to be directed to public education, but the state budget presented to the governor directed a portion to private schools. Fliter said the school board association wasn't opposed to state spending for training or equipment to address cardiac emergencies in private schools, but suggested lawmakers ought to select a funding source other than CPI-U aid for public education. 'We are very concerned about that taking of CPI funding for AEDs,' she said. Harwood, the deputy commissioner at the state Department of Education, said questions had been raised about constitutionality of the $250,000 appropriation to private schools. 'Because most of the private schools are parochial, it may actually be a violation of the Constitution because state aid can't go to parochial schools,' Harwood said. The Legislature scheduled work sessions Thursday and Friday in anticipation the governor would issue vetoes. As of Tuesday, Kelly had vetoed 10 bills approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature. The governor has been working through the state budget bill and could make line-item vetoes.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kansas Board of Education's informal school policy discussion proves informative
Kansas State Board of Education chair Cathy Hopkins, center, shares the opinion of some of her peers about the need to streamline state board mandates so local school boards and districts can best address the fundamentals of student instruction in math, reading and writing. (Kansas Reflector screen capture of state board's livestream) TOPEKA — A policy retreat offered the Kansas Board of Education opportunity to explore how local school boards could be liberated from much of the state's educational bureaucracy by reshaping standards to emphasize instruction in the basics of reading, writing and math. Conservatives on the 10-member state Board of Education expressed support Monday in personal and philosophical terms for a shift toward fundamental subjects. During the informal gathering at a Topeka office building, right-leaning members said time had come to curtail state mandates bearing down on 284 school districts serving nearly 500,000 students. Cathy Hopkins, who serves as chair of the state Board of Education and represents a district covering much of western Kansas, said the board was guilty of piling burdensome responsibilities on teachers and administrators. It could be necessary to jettison a large portion of state mandates to improve the ability of local districts to deliver for students in fundamental subject areas, she said. Her personal agenda for the upcoming two years centered on helping students excel in reading and writing because prowess in those core areas would create an educational ripple effect on student learning. 'How do we get back to that? The core,' said Leavenworth state board member Danny Zeck, who serves as the board's vice chair. 'Get rid of all this Barbra Streisand stuff that we're doing. What we're doing now … is not working. We need to get down to the basic stuff for these kids — that they can read and write and do arithmetic and maybe there's some computer skills and go from there.' State board member Debby Potter of Garden Plain said accreditation standards for public schools set by the state board had to be condensed. 'There's a whole range of people and they don't all have to know math at the level of every other one to be successful,' Potter said. She indicted the state board should be operating at a 20,000-foot level in terms of academic directives. Local school boards should be allowed to fill in details of academic standards to reflect the character or needs of individual districts. 'God made us to want to learn and gain something we don't have. All we have to do is provide the tools,' said Hutchinson board member Dennis Hershberger. He said young children were being harmed by parents who gave them a PlayStation gaming device instead of a box of Crayons. He said he yearned for the past when a jar of pencils on a shelf or a chalkboard at the front of the classroom were keys to the educational experience. Randy Watson, commissioner of the Kansas State Department of Education, began the policy retreat by emphasizing the value of public service performed by the state Board of Education members. He asked the eight board members in attendance to consider policy amendments that could be accomplished in the next two years, but requested each be framed in terms of children and their families. 'This isn't about trying to bait people,' Watson said. 'All of you not only serve different parts of the state, you come at this job from a different perspective.' He reminded board members of Article 6, Section 2 of the Kansas Constitution that declared the Kansas Legislature 'shall provide for a state Board of Education, which shall have general supervision of public schools.' And, Article 6, Section 6 of the document: 'The Legislature shall make suitable provision for finance of the educational interests of the state.' Interpretation of those constitutional duties has prompted major legal battles every 20 years of so that ultimately were addressed by the Kansas Supreme Court, he said. 'You have a lot of authority, as does a local board,' Watson said. 'What does a kindergartner need? What does a third-grader need? How do you build that? We can't do everything.' Politically moderate members of the state Board of Education said during the retreat in Topeka that Kansas ought to maintain a central role in the academic evolution of school districts statewide. They said the state board's mission of delivering educational opportunity to all students had to remain a cornerstone of Kansas' pre-kindergarten through high school public education system. There was discussion of students' demand for instruction in life skills, which have been designed by the state board to prepare graduates for a career or college. Board member Betty Arnold of Wichita said compaction of instruction to reading, writing and math to the exclusion of other parts of a person's education ignored reality because many students arrived in public school buildings ill-equipped to learn. Time devoted to mentally preparing students to succeed in school and life shouldn't be viewed as an extravagance, she said. 'It's more difficult to teach a kid who does not believe in him or herself,' Arnold said. 'No students come to us the same way.' Hershberger, the Hutchinson state board member, said he was 'old-school' and recalled how he struggled emotionally as a child to overcome barriers to reading aloud in class. Students experience real education when they accomplished something they didn't know they were capable of doing, he said. 'Every child unless there is some mental disability … has the capability of learning to read no matter what their background is,' Hershberger said. In response, Arnold said it would be wrong for a state board member to transfer personal school experiences from decades ago to decisions about what was necessary to educate children in this era and the future. 'We have to be able to live outside of our own story,' Arnold said. Melanie Haas, a state board member from Overland Park, said state board placed proper emphasis on a commitment to individual plans of study for students as well as issues related to values and morality. She said the Kansas Education Systems Accreditation program, which was crafted so district-level decisions were made about improving educational opportunity, was in place. 'We're right in the middle of it. We're doing it,' Haas said. In terms of statewide reform, she said, it was imperative the state board concentrate on improving school culture by minimizing friction between teachers and administrators. 'When you have a great administrator who gives autonomy to those in school, you see that in student success,' Haas said. 'When you have someone who is micromanaging and telling teachers what to do, and ruling, I think that's where you see these cultures start to break down.' She said surveys showed students welcomed instruction in life skills tied to personal, academic and vocational success, including social-emotional learning, practical skills for daily living and character development. Zeck, the northeast Kansas member of the state board, said he was frustrated with emphasis on life skills in public schools. 'If we're going to talk about life skills, I would like it to be black and white and not a whole bunch of gray,' Zeck said. 'If we're going to simplify things, then we need to simplify them and not have all this gray stuff.'
