<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/4/1617820286358.png" alt="Sen. Molly Baumgardner, left and Rep. Kirstey Williams, right, brought their respective education committees together Tuesday to begin discussion of public education proposals. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Sen. Molly Baumgardner, left and Rep. Kirstey Williams, right, brought their respective education committees together Tuesday to begin discussion of public education proposals. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>By NOAH TABORDA <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/04/07/house-and-senate-negotiators-begin-wrangling-over-kansas-k-12-budget-and-policies/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — Kansas Republican
 legislators from the House and Senate remain largely divided on several
 proposed budget and policy elements of K-12 public education in the 
state.Members of the House K-12 
Education Budget Committee and the Senate Education Committee met 
Tuesday to negotiate elements of House Bill 2119, a measure with 
wide-ranging impacts on education policy and the public school budget. 
The bill narrowly passed the House last week despite bipartisan concerns
 over several provisions.Representatives expressed 
uneasiness around the Student Empowerment Act and asked that their 
concerns be ironed out when the two chambers met. The act would take the
 standard per-pupil aid normally given to public schools and place it 
into an education savings account for students designated as “at-risk” 
to use for private school tuition and other education-adjacent expenses.The bill would also fully 
fund public education as requested in the governor’s budget for 2021 and
 2022. In 2023, the measure would remove a funding formula provision 
giving additional budget weighting to students in districts with a high 
number of at-risk students per square mile.While there are some 
provisions contained in the bill yet to be heard in the Senate committee
 — including the Student Empowerment Act — there is some overlap that 
should allow for a successful negotiation, said Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a
 Louisburg Republican and chairwoman of the Senate Education panel. 
Still, Baumgardner identified certain key aspects she would like to see 
included in the final package, including the Promise Act, which would 
provide postsecondary educational scholarships for certain two-year 
associate degrees and technical education programs.“If we’re looking at 
something that is kind of a mega education bill, then we do have to 
absolutely be looking at the Promise Act and concurrent enrollment,” 
Baumgardner said. “We have such significant funding going for high 
density at-risk and at-risk for our schools and our kids. And so, we 
really do like the guardrails that we have in our Senate Bill 173. We’ll
 want to see some of those things.”In a packed committee room
 with several stakeholders, members of the Senate committee received the
 initial recommendation on the bill from Rep. Kristey Williams, an 
Augusta Republican and chairwoman of the House panel. Williams 
recommended the full contents of the House bill be placed into the 
Senate bill.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/4/1617820346165.jpeg" alt="Rep. Valdenia Winn, D-Kansas City, Kansas, asked legislative staff about a hypothetical situation for partly enrolled public school students and their eligibility for these programs. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Rep. Valdenia Winn, D-Kansas City, Kansas, asked legislative staff about a hypothetical situation for partly enrolled public school students and their eligibility for these programs. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>The joint negotiation 
adjourned before any counter offers or decisions were made, but 
lawmakers will again gather Wednesday to continue deliberations. A 
concern that the Student Empowerment Act and a tax credit to benefit 
private schools would be stackable is among issues the joint panel is 
set to address.Under the tax credit 
section, the bill would reimburse organizations that grant scholarships 
for private schools up to $8,000 in tax credits per student per year. 
The proposed measure would greatly expand eligibility for the program by
 removing a provision that students must be in the 100 worst-performing 
public schools and adding students eligible for free and reduced-price 
lunch.“What if a student is in a
 private school, taking some classes in the public school because the 
private school cannot provide them, and the teacher or district 
recommends to the parent that that student is eligible,” said Rep. 
Valdenia Winn, D-Kansas City, Kansas. “Is there any language in the bill
 that would keep that student eligible?”The revisor’s office 
confirmed if a student were enrolled in public school part-time and they
 qualify for free or reduced-price meals or at-risk services, the 
student would be eligible for these programs.Another clause limiting 
funding for remote learners to that of virtual school — $5,000 — rather 
than the usual finance formula for in-person instruction raised some 
eyebrows among Democrats and public education advocates. The bill would 
define a “remotely enrolled student” as a student who, during a state of
 disaster declaration, attended classes remotely for more than 240 
school term hours or more than 40 hours when no disaster has been 
declared.Mark Tallman, of the 
Kansas Association of School Boards, said accountability for remote 
learning is understandable, but funding students as if they attend 
virtual school is not adequate. He said virtual schools are designed for
 students who seldom attend in person.“It seems to us that this 
is reacting against concerns about this pandemic but could shut other 
flexibility for students when we’re looking at school redesign, those 
kinds of things,” Tallman said. One of the things that I think districts
 are trying to experiment with is to say, if you’ve got a child who can 
be successful … in a different environment, and if we can find ways to 
put in good accountability, why shouldn’t we be able to do that?”A second meeting of the 
two chambers to reconcile differences between a House Bill 2397 
proposing a 2% cut across all state departments, including K-12 
education, and Senate Bill 267, which puts off allocating $570 million 
in K-12 funding until May, also took place Tuesday.Legislators remain divided on all but one provision of school funding issues and will work to find common ground Wednesday.

Legislative negotiators begin wrangling over Kan. K-12 budget, policies