“Public education advocates on Monday voiced their opposition to a proposal that would eliminate a task force charged with studying how special education can be better funded.
“The special education task force, created by the Legislature last year, met once but only after there was an effort undertaken to force a meeting.
“Under the bill, the special education task force would be replaced by a new panel that would be required to review the current state school finance formula and make recommendations before it lapses in January 2027.
“The House K-12 Education Budget Committee heard testimony on the bill Monday.
“The bill had one supporter, the Kansas Policy Institute. But others were neutral or opposed to the legislation because of how it treated the special education task force and the composition of the new study panel.
“Ann Mah, a member of the Kansas State Board of Education, spoke against eliminating the special education task force, although she was ‘neutral’ overall.
“Mah said the composition of the new education task force proposed in the bill lacked a sufficient number of experts in school finance and special education.
“’It is obvious that the education task force does not have the experts or the time to figure out all that along with general funding,’ Mah said.
“She said the special education task force – sometimes referred to in shorthand as SPED – was drafted with special education in mind.
“Now, we intend to end the SPED task force even before its report has even been released,” Mah said.
Mah noted that the special education task force voted to continue meeting, asking whether the Legislature was going to ignore that recommendation.
“The bottom line is that both task forces are necessary,” she said. “You could have a great collaboration between those two task forces.
“There are two paths here,” Mah said.
“You can eliminate the SPED task force in favor of a less qualified team, or you can do what’s best for Kansas kids and keep the SPED task force in place so that we have a plan that’s both equitable and adequate for all of our special needs kids,” she said…
“The task force’s membership would include:
*Two members of the House of Representatives appointed by the speaker.
*One member of the House of Representatives appointed by the minority leader.
*Two members of the Senate appointed by the president of the Senate.
*One member of the Senate appointed by the minority leader.
*One member of the State Board of Education appointed by the board.
*A parent of a student appointed by the House speaker.
*A parent of a student appointed by the Senate president.
*A superintendent of a rural school district appointed by the Board of Education.
*A superintendent of an urban school district appointed by the Board of Education.
*Three nonvoting members including the commissioner of education, chair of the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and the state budget director.
“Williams said she didn’t think the task force demonstrated an interest in addressing structural issues related to special education funding after it recommended more money for special education.
“The Kansas Association of School Boards supported the idea of creating a new committee to study school funding, but questioned the makeup of the panel and said the special education task force should continue to meet.
“Angie Stallbaumer, deputy director and general counsel of the school boards’ association, said it was good to see the new committee include two school superintendents and the state budget director.
“’What we don’t have assurances of is that we have somebody that’s somewhat of a school finance historian, someone that would have the depth of knowledge required to understand what changes to that formula would mean,’ Stallbaumer said.
“Representing United School Administrators of Kansas, former state Rep. Jim Karleskint also urged lawmakers to add more school finance experts to the committee.
“’School finance is a difficult matter,’ Karleskint said. ‘I would like to make the suggestion that more individuals that have school finance experience be represented on the task force.
“’There’s a lot to do, there’s a lot to learn, there’s a lot to understand.’”
Published on Facebook on Jan. 30th, 2024.