New school funding, choice plan advances in Kansas with promise of Kelly’s signature

Kansas lawmakers sent a new plan to modestly expand school choice eligibility in Kansas while providing full funding to K-12 public schools to Gov. Laura Kelly’s desk Friday evening.

Both chambers passed the bills with overwhelming support after minimal debate. It was in stark contrast to the heated arguments last month over the GOP’s original plan to tie school funding to what would have been the state’s largest school choice measure ever.

The House approved the bill 107-9 while the Senate passed it 35-4.

Senate Vice President Rick Wilborn, a McPherson Republican, proclaimed it “one of the finest bills I’ve ever seen.”

The compromise bill was completed Thursday evening after days of negotiation between lawmakers and Gov. Laura Kelly’s office and hours of back and forth between Senate and House members in conference committee.

The final product includes expansion of an existing voucher-style tax credit scholarship program for low income students. It also restricts the number of hours schools may use remote learning each year — with a funding penalty if they exceed the limit without permission from the state board of education.

“We have tried to respond in every way to the different concerns that you’ve heard from our school district leadership from our teachers, that we’ve heard from different groups that represent a variety of different interests with education,” said Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Louisburg Republican.

Missouri lawmakers approved a similar plan Thursday, establishing a program that would allow 7,000 students to attend private schools with scholarships funded by tax credits.

In a statement Friday afternoon Gov. Laura Kelly said she disagreed with pieces of the bill but saw it as a compromise.

“I ran for Governor on the promise that I would fully fund our schools. And for the third year in a row, we’ve kept that promise, delivered on education, and did right by our kids,” Kelly said.

Her statement came hours after Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, told reporters Kelly had committed to signing the bill.

“Everybody feels like they lost a little something and gained a little something,” Masterson said.

Additionally Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat, said she supported the policy.

“I think it’s a compromise bill,” she said. “There are definitely pieces in it that I don’t love but at the end of the day we’re fully funding our schools.”

Mark Tallman, a lobbyist for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said Friday that he was pleased with the bill as a whole but still had concerns about public dollars going to private education and remote learning restrictions.

More than anything, he said, the school boards wanted full funding of public education.

“We just didn’t want to see other things that we think could kind of distract away from that,” Tallman said.

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This round of negotiations began after a previous attempt to tie K-12 funding to major expansions of school choice and restrictions on remote learning failed on a 20-20 vote in the Senate last month.

Democrats and moderate Republicans said they were concerned about the potential damage from a provision establishing accounts allowing at-risk students to pay private school tuition with money that would otherwise go to public education.

When lawmakers returned to Topeka in May, Republicans said they still hoped to pass policy measures alongside education funding.

But, the most contentious provision, creation of an education savings account for at risk students, was abandoned.

The compromise school choice measure retained a modest expansion of eligibility for tax credit funded scholarships, allowing a maximum of 1,250 students to participate before it reaches it’s spending limit of $10 million dollars.

Under the new policy, all students receiving free and reduced-price lunch between kindergarten and 8th grade would be eligible. Currently, eligibility is restricted to those receiving free lunch and attending the 100 lowest performing elementary schools in the state.

Rep. Kristey Williams, an Augusta Republican, said she still saw education savings accounts as an important option for helping at risk students.

“I think that you’ll see (educational savings accounts) again, they’re not going away,” Williams said.

“This year … we were not able to come on a larger overall consensus.”

The Eagle’s Dion Lefler contributed to this report.