Here’s a helpful recap of the passage of the education finance bill by Republican Rep. Stephanie Clayton:
On Friday, April 4th, the Kansas House passed an excellent bill that would have brought the most money to Johnson County Schools, allowed us to increase our Local Option Budget, and provided for some other minor policy changes. This bill was a bill I was proud to support, and that sentiment was mirrored by Governor Brownback, who visited the House GOP caucus to urge us to support the bill prior to the vote. This bill was unique in the fact that it was also supported by gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis, who voted for the bill and urged members of his caucus to do the same on the House Floor. This was a very rare unifying moment in the House indeed- and it happened because the bill was that good. Only a few members of the House dissented. You can see the vote here (Yea 91, Nay 31): SB 216 and read about it here.

But, as often happens in the legislature, things can go terribly wrong. The House Bill had to go into conference, where it was to be reconciled with a Senate Bill that was weighted down with policy changes. The Conference Committee Report that resulted from this first round of negotiations went down in the House. You can see the vote here (Yay 55, Nay 67): SB 218 and read about it here.

After this bill was voted down, the House went into recess, but a conference committee met to craft a new education bill at about 4:00 am – never the best time to make any decisions, let alone craft legislation. Read about the bill here.

The next day was Sunday. The House reconvened at noon, and then recessed. And then reconvened, and recessed…several times throughout the day. Why would this happen? Why not just vote on the bill right away? Because Senate and House leadership did not have the votes to pass this new bill. An effective tactic in wearing down legislators, and people in general, is to set an uncertain schedule, deny information, deprive members of sleep, threaten to strip them of committee assignments, and offer rewards for changing one’s vote. All of these tactics were employed in order to get the votes in the Senate (Yay 22, Nay 17; 21 are needed to pass a bill) and in the House (Yay 63, Nay 47); 63 are needed to pass a bill). You can see the final results here: S Sub HB 2506. It is worth noting that the full text of the bill was not even available until yesterday – more than a week after the vote.

Why did I vote NO on the final bill? There were two main reasons, both equal in their importance:

I knew if this bill went down, the next bill that came to the House Floor would be the good bill, the bill that would bring the most money to Johnson County Schools. We had only to vote that one last bill down, and we would have been able to deliver something to constituents that I, and indeed, the entire state of Kansas, could be proud of.
House members also did not receive any kind of budget run or a supplemental note (summary of the bill) until 30 minutes prior to the vote, and as I mentioned before, the full text of the bill was not available at the time of the vote. No good legislator would *ever* vote “yes” on something that they had not read.
But the good bill was actively rejected by House Leadership, and instead, the bill that we have now passed. As we know, if the bill was any good, nobody would have had to have been pressured to vote for it. The passage tactics alone were a strong indicator that the bill was bad. But since it is highly likely that this bill will be signed into law, we need to understand just what it does.
The Details

PROS

· Fully funds “equalization aid” known as Supplemental General State Aid to the tune of $103.8 million;
· Adds $25.2 million to fund capital outlay to districts who are eligible;
· Increases the Base State Aid Per Pupil (BSAPP) by $14 (there’s a caveat, keep reading);
· Increases local authority to 33% of the district’s budget for one year with board approval, and beyond with voter approval;
For this election, boards can send mail ballots.
CONS

For the $185,926 Shawnee Mission will receive, Johnson County taxpayers will send millions more to Topeka. The bill raises the money above through cuts to other areas of education:

Eliminates funds for non-proficient at-risk students – those who are not proficient in testing but who are not poor ($4.8m, $265,018 from Shawnee Mission schools);
Cuts at-risk weighting for part-time students ($3.3m, $38,643 from Shawnee Mission schools)
Policy measures included in the funding bill:
Eliminates due process rights for teachers who are fired: It is in most districts’ best interests to maintain due process for legal reasons, even though it is no longer statutorily required;
Due process for constitutional rights will always be in place but many teachers have contacted be about retaliation concerns – for failing the school board president’s daughter, for not starting the principal’s son at the Homecoming game, for challenging leadership to get more support for special needs kids, etc.
Creates a voucher system in Kansas: Tax Credit for Low Income Students Scholarship Program (aka Corporate Education Tax Credit Scholarship Program):
Eligibility: Kansas students currently qualified for free lunch and enrolled in a Title I public school.
Funding: Corporate donors would receive a tax credit against their income taxes equal to 70% of their contribution, to a total of $10 million in credits each fiscal year.
Implementation: A Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO) would dole out $8,000 scholarships from the fund to be used at any nonpublic school in Kansas. The school would simply have to let the SGO know they want to be eligible.
· The bill sets up a PreK-12 School Finance Study Commission:
Comprised of political appointees, none of which are required to be teachers, parents, or administrators.
The policy changes with regard to teachers’ rights and tax dollars going to private schools are a tragic turn for our state.