A day of back-and-forth negotiations ended climactically Tuesday as Senate negotiators agreed to some education accountability measures if the House accepted their school finance plan.
As tensions started mounting toward the end of the day, House members walked away from talks to consider the Senate’s offer, which is built on the school finance plan it passed in March.
“No comment on your offer,” said Republican state Rep. Kristey Williams, the lead negotiator for the House. “You’ve given us a lot to think about. There is a lot on the table right now.”
Sen. Molly Baumgardner, the Senate’s lead negotiator, tried to schedule the next conference committee meeting but couldn’t get Williams to agree to a time.
“I do think that is only fair to our support staff a well as those that will be attending and listening that we know when it is we will be meeting again,” Baumgardner said. “We need to have an assurance. There does need to be trust that we will meet.”
Baumgardner said she didn’t want a replay of last year, when the House refused to come to the table and negotiate. She said she wanted to set at least a preliminary time for meeting again and urged Williams to contact her by 9 a.m. Wednesday.
“When I schedule a meeting and agree upon a meeting, I will be there. I have no idea what happened last year,” Williams said. “This is a new year and a clean slate.”
Williams said she thinks the House negotiators will be ready to meet sometime before 5 p.m. but couldn’t say exactly when.
Baumgardner said the senators’ proposal is not new, pointing out that they passed a finance plan 32-8 on March 14.
The plan is the one that Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly introduced at the start of the session and continues to support as a way of bringing the school litigation to an end.
“This is not something that just came up yesterday, just came up today,” Baumgardner said of the school funding plan. “This is not something that’s surprising.”
Senators agreed to several accountability proposals advocated by the House in order to win support for a plan to put about $90 million each year for four years into school funding to satisfy the Supreme Court’s mandate to adequately fund education.
They agreed to one House proposal to require the Department of Education to create one-page performance accountability reports for the state, each school district, and each school building.
The Senate also agreed to another requirement for the Education Department to prepare annual longitudinal reports on student achievement on the state assessment for English language arts, math and science.
However, the Senate is a staunch opponent of a House proposal to eliminate a law that provides for special education state aid at a rate of 92 percent of the excess costs of educating special needs children.
Senators believe it is critical for the state to set an aspirational goal of meeting that standard to ensure the needs of special education children are met.
“We have heard from parents of special education students, we have heard from faculty members that work with special education kids and we’ve heard from department heads of special education programs,” Baumgardner told the committee. “To say they’re alarmed is perhaps an understatement.”
While the state has not been at the 92 percent level since 2011, to remove that from existing law would be detrimental and could leave those children overlooked, Baumgardner said.
While the 92 percent may be “aspirational,” it’s a goal that the state should work toward, not move away from.
Williams noted that the state hasn’t met the 92 percent level in almost a decade. “If we want to put an aspirational (goal) in statute, great,” she said.
The state, she said, has set other aspirational goals that were later repealed. She said there’s sufficient money available for schools; it’s a question of how it’s being spent.
“We all know when you have $6.5 billion, there’s enough money,” she said. “It’s how we’re spending the money that matters.”
Sen. Anthony Hensley said the Senate’s position on funding was supported by Republicans and Democrats alike. He also noted that it is backed by the governor.
“I think it’s time for us to move on school finance,” Hensley said
“We are long past what the attorney general recommended as a timeline, and so I believe now is the time for us to make the decision.”
