Gov. Laura Kelly says now is the best time to fight for the future of education.
Attend your local school board meetings. Get organized. Meet with your local lawmakers and make your voice heard.
Do those things before the next legislative session if you want to have the most impact, she said in a one-on-one interview with the Register on Tuesday to talk specifically about education.
“It takes time. It takes persistence,” Kelly said.
“We saw some actions taken during this legislative session that were clearly the direct result of hearing from constituents.”
She offered two examples:
Lawmakers abandoned plans to pass a parental bill of rights, something educators across the state strongly — and vocally — opposed. It would have given parents greater access and oversight over educational material they consider obscene or morally objectionable. Educators and parents alike criticized the bill as unnecessary and invasive, and said it would force districts to invest time and money into such things as online portals and new evaluation procedures.
Similarly, legislators backed away from vouchers, which would shift public dollars to help pay tuition for private and parochial schools.
“I’d really like to thank everybody for their efforts to make sure things like vouchers and the Parents’ Bill of Rights didn’t become law,” Kelly, a Democrat, said. Those bills were proposed by conservative groups and Kelly expects those groups to continue their efforts in future sessions.
Kelly also noted this is the fifth year lawmakers voted to fully fund K-12 education, following years of pressure, debate and a lawsuit. Parents organized themselves into groups to march to the capitol to show support for public education “and ultimately, it worked,” Kelly said.
“That message was heard loud and clear. Education is a clear issue to get behind.”
THE BIGGEST disappointment from the recent legislative session was a failure to fully fund special education, Kelly said.
She asked lawmakers for $72.4 million every year for the next five years to meet a statutory requirement to provide 92% of the costs of special education. The state is about $160 million short of this level and hasn’t met the requirement since 2011.
It isn’t just the state, though.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act required the federal government to fund up to 40% of a state’s average per-pupil expenditure on special education. That’s never happened, with federal aid to states for special education averaging about 15% of the cost.
Perhaps if Congress were to meet its obligation, state lawmakers might feel more pressure to do the same, Kelly said.
Instead, Kansas legislators approved only a 1% increase in funding for special education, or about $7.5 million.
“I will be like a pit bull with this. I will not give up,” Kelly said.
