March was a busy month at the Kansas state house, and even as I'm typing this, the House will re-convene, likely late into Thursday evening. Follow social media for SM area PTA, Game on for Kansas Schools and Kansas PTA for action alerts and timely updates, as things are moving FAST.
This Thursday, legislators added several education policies (some of which had failed to pass previously) into the K-12 education funding bill. Concerning policies like open enrollment, a so-called parents bill of rights (which adds time and burden to teachers), and an unfunded mandate for a program called Math Nation were possibly being added to the budget bill. We are asking legislators to pass a CLEAN education funding bill, without these detrimental policies. You can read more about these issues here about the budget bill from SM Area Council of PTAs.
Action item: Lawmakers adjourn on Friday April 1, and return on April 25 for the veto session. Now is a great time to contact them, while they are on break! We'd like to remind them to stay focused on what's critically important to our schools and vote in favor/sustain any vetoes that would support the following priorities:
-Maintaining full school funding,
-Passing a clean education funding bill,
-Meeting the state's special education funding obligation*
-Helping students with learning recovery, and supporting our teachers!
If you aren't sure who your state legislators are, go to https://ksleglookup.org/. The email doesn't have to be professional or perfect- they'll get the message , and it's wonderful when they can hear from parents about what matters to us! Email me any time with questions or for more details at emsebelius@gmail.com.
*A few weeks ago, for a brief moment the House fully funded special ed, but the vote was reversed. The state of Kansas has a $3 billion surplus this year, and could fully fund special education, which has been underfunded by the state and in turns costs our SMSD district roughly $8 million dollars annually. If this is fully funded, for our school for example, this would free up funds that will run out when one-time federal COVID relief funds dry up in a year or so. (Those COVID funds have been used in SMSD to increase social work support, reduce class sizes and hire more staff, among other things.)
