TOPEKA — Kansas senators shot down a version of a school finance bill that would have guided state education funding for the next three years, heeding warnings from public schools advocates that the bill’s special education provision could have damaging consequences.
As midnight approaches, negotiations are still ongoing between House and Senate lawmakers tasked with guided state educational policy.
Senate Bill 387 allocated billions for K-12 schools, but would have also changed the calculation for state special education aid, proposing a new formula that public school advocates warned would “permanently underfund K-12 public school special education.”
The bill would have used local dollars as part of the calculation. Money for special education goes toward educational needs for gifted and disabled students in Kansas public schools. The special education formula currently factors in costs of providing services, costs of regular education and federal aid to determine each district’s state special education aid. The proposed formula would have used factors such as Medicaid and state hospital funding, along with district-level budgets to determine special education aid.
Public education advocates, including the Kansas Association of School Boards and the Kansas National Educators Association, spoke against the special education bill provision, calling it one that would mask a lack of state funding for special education. In a joint statement, the groups said the calculation was a “series of accounting gimmicks.”
The bill narrowly passed the House on a 65-58 vote but failed in the Senate in a 12-26 late night vote Thursday, with lawmakers citing the special education provision in their opposition.
“That’s not new money,” said Rep. David Younger, a Ulysses Republican, in Thursday opposition to the bill. “That’s money that’s coming in that’s supposed to be there. Counting local option budget money is not new money. That’s local money. And I stand by my claim that this is voodoo math.”
Following the failure, the bill was put back in the hands of lawmakers tasked with reworking the proposal in conference with other lawmakers.
Among other provisions, the bill would establish a task force meant to review the current school finance system, academic reporting and achievement goals. The task force would provide recommendations to the governor and the Legislature by January of 2027 to establish a new school finance formula, after the current funding formula expires on July 1, 2027.
