Gov. Kelly to push for more special education funding. Will KS Legislature block her?

When Kansas lawmakers return to Topeka next month, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly will ask the Republican-controlled Legislature to commit to millions in new spending on special education, after lawmakers have failed to hit funding levels required by state law for more than a decade.

But leading GOP voices on education want to change how the funding levels are calculated – an accounting maneuver to potentially bring Kansas into compliance without substantially increasing the dollars schools receive.

For the past three years, Kansas public education advocates have pushed for more special education funding.

Federal law requires schools to provide services to students with disabilities. Congress provides some of the funds needed to serve these students — the federal government provided about $130 million to Kansas last year. Kansas law then mandates the state government cover 92% of the costs not paid for by federal dollars.

But the federal government has long fallen short of its own funding goals to cover 40% of the costs of special education programs. And Kansas has not met its statutory requirements for the additional costs since 2011, even as special education caseloads have grown.

The funding shortfalls have an impact on district budgets and individual students.

Sarah Meyer, a mother who has two children receiving special education services in Topeka Public Schools, said her school has struggled to recruit and retain enough paras and teachers.

For her older son, who needs additional assistance with math, she said he’s at times getting assistance in larger groups rather than small groups and individualized attention.

“It’s hard to provide that individualized attention and that individualized time that some of these kiddos really need to understand the concept,” said Meyer, who is also an executive assistant at the Kansas National Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.

A budget showdown

During the 2021-2022 school year Kansas funded on average about 78% of a district’s additional costs during the 2021-2022 school year, according to the Kansas State Department of Education. That year, the state provided nearly $515 million in state aid.

Kelly’s budget proposal last year would have increased the annual state aid by more than $361 million dollars over five years.

Rep. Kristey Williams, an Augusta Republican who chairs the House K-12 Budget Committee, said she will pursue legislation in the session that begins in January adjusting the state’s special education funding formula to include dollars Kansas already spends but are not currently calculated as part of the total.

Williams’ plans would also ensure the state covers the same proportion of costs for each school district.

“If we counted all the money then we would be exceeding the 92%,” Williams said. Any further expenditures after that, Williams said, would be up for discussion in the Legislature.

Williams’ efforts, if they advance, could trigger a showdown between Republican lawmakers and Kelly, who has long called herself the “education governor.” But a potential Kelly veto would also force Republicans to confront internal divisions over education that could derail any chance of overriding a veto.

All of it will play out against the backdrop of looming state elections. Every Kansas House and Senate seat is up for election in 2024.

Sen. Cindy Holscher, an Overland Park Democrat, said special education would “absolutely” be an issue in state legislative races. She said Kansans are beginning to understand that a lack of full funding “impacts the hiring of teachers, paras – the direct staff that would work with students of all needs.”

Under the current formula, districts do not all see an equal proportion of their special education costs covered by the state. For some districts, state aid fills the entirety of their costs, while others fall far short and are forced to use their general funds to fulfill special education requirements.

Brent Yeager, the superintendent of the Olathe School District, told lawmakers earlier this year that the district transferred almost $100 million from its general fund to special education in the past three years.

“Transferring substantial amounts of money out of our general fund impacts our ability to provide resources to all students and to provide the salary and benefits that our staff deserve,” Yeager said in written testimony.

And projections show the shortfalls will grow this school year.

Kelly told reporters after an unrelated event on Tuesday she plans to request a phased-in approach to full funding, echoing support by the Kansas State Board of Education for a stair-step approach. Her last budget proposal sought an additional $72 million each year for the next five years.

“My approach to funding special education will be the way it’s always been,” Kelly said, saying she will also push the federal government to provide more funding.

Lawmakers rejected the 2023 budget request, instead opting to establish a task force to study the issue. Republican lawmakers later delayed calling that same task force arguing it was unnecessary because public education stakeholders on the committee would simply ask for more state funding – something leadership sees as not worth debating.

Instead, they want to look at how the funding is calculated and how districts spend it. Kelly and Republicans have long pushed for the federal government to increase their funding level.

“The state’s level of investment in special education is not the issue - the problem lies with the lack of funding from the federal government as well as in our flawed formula, which results in some districts getting too much money and some not enough,” Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said in a statement.

“Simply increasing the amount of state dollars beyond the amount required by Gannon to that same formula would only exacerbate the problem. We must work on a solution that fixes the formula and ensures the money taxpayers invest in special education actually gets to those vulnerable kids.”

Lena Kisner, president of the Kansas Association of Special Education Administrators, said changes to the way special education funding is calculated – without new dollars – would be little more than an accounting change allowing lawmakers to claim they’ve met their funding obligation.

“Well, fine, the district is still going to have to spend extra money to provide the necessary special education services,” Kisner said. “So it’s on paper meeting an obligation, but not really.”

Kelly signaled a likely veto if Republicans change the formula, saying “you don’t fix something that’s not broken.”

“As long as it’s working, I don’t see any reason to tamper with it,” she said.

Proponents of changing the formula would have a difficult time gathering the necessary Republican support for a veto override, given a lack of unified support among GOP lawmakers. All or nearly all Democratic lawmakers would also likely vote to uphold a veto.

Sen. Brenda Deitrich, a Topeka Republican, said she’d vote for a phased-in approach to new funding. While growing districts have an easier time accommodating an increase in special education needs, she said, districts with flat or declining enrollment are in a much more precarious position.

“It’s really a tremendous burden on districts that are not growing,” said Deitrich, a former superintendent at Auburn-Washburn School District in Topeka.

Rep. Dave Younger, a Ulysses Republican and former superintendent in his local district, remembered the work he had to do to supplement special education funding with other dollars in his district. In a year of budget surpluses, he said, infusing new funds was a “no-brainer.”

“It just doesn’t carry weight,” Younger said of the arguments to change the formula. “We’re obligated and that’s what we should be paying. Now ‘if we don’t like the rules let’s just rewrite the rules and get what we want.’ I don’t believe in that.”