Legislative Update 1-27-12

View the KACTE bill tracking report for the 2012 Kansas Legislative Session through Thursday January 26, 2012 here.

This report contains carry over matters from the 2011 Session in addition to new matters introduced in the 2012 Legislative Session. Carry over bills from last session are subject to the 2012 deadlines as if they were introduced this year. All matters not passed or otherwise disposed of this session will be dead and would have to be refilled in 2013 to be considered again. It excludes bills from last year that were passed and signed into law or killed and struck from the calendar.

The bill proposed by the Governor that would restructure the school finance formula and many other matters, including how CTE is funded, was introduced in committee at long last yesterday. It is voluminous and does not have a bill number yet so the actual bill version is not yet in print. As soon as it is available in print we will send it to you along with some dissection of the provisions.

The two most controversial issues I am aware of in the bill as it relates to CTE are 1) do we have the .5 weighted funding for CTE any longer for our programs and 2) how does this “30 mile” rule effect my program.

1) The .5 weighted funding which equals about 28.9 million dollars is still funded in the Governor’s 2013 budget. All “weighting” for all categories that have previously received “weighting” is proposed to be removed and each category funded in some different way. For CTE the entire 28.9 million dollars that funded the .5 weighting is in the KSDE budget for 2013 and will be distributed to the school districts in much, if not the same way as this year. The term “weighting “ is gone, but the money is still there.

2) The “30 mile” rule regarding secondary programs that are duplicates of a post-secondary program within “30 miles” are slated to be eliminated in some instances. The devil is in the detail of course and we have been trying to shape the language to reflect in the first version of the bill(s) that 1) the determination of “duplicate” is not just in name or description only for example and that it is determined impartially and 2) that the program could not be closed unless the college offering the post-secondary program has the capacity to take the number of students the secondary school serves in that program (with waiting lists for tech programs now that is unlikely in any instance which we are currently aware of.)

There will be many more concerns as this initiative becomes something tangible we can hold and dissect. As it moves through the process, rest assured that we will be there every step of the way shaping it for the benefit of CTE on your behalf. The intentions for the changes appear to us to be without any malignant intent and in fact a move to strengthen and grow CTE in Kansas across the sectors. If it begins to take shape in a harmful fashion or it cannot be shaped sufficiently to meet your needs then we will pull out all the stops to keep it from happening. It is our judgment that the entire package is so big that it could drown under its own weight if one part or another begins to take on water making it a very fragile initiative to start with.

Keep the faith. At long last your hard work and CTE is getting the recognition it deserves for being the critical part of education that creates the prepared workforce that current and potential Kansas employers need! More to follow as it occurs.

The 2012 Governor's Career Readiness Summit was held January 18, 2012.

The summit was an opportunity for local and national education leaders and other stakeholders to
discuss strategies for improving career readiness. In the Road Map for Kansas, Governor Sam Brownback highlighted the importance of Kansas students graduating with the skills and credentials needed to succeed in the workplace. Specifically, the Road Map challenges our state to increase the percentage of high school graduates who are college or career ready. Part of the summit was a discussion regarding current and potential future strategies for meeting this goal.

View the ACTE Presentation here
View information about the Common Career Technical Core

January 9, 2012 - Career and Technical educators and stakeholders joined Kansas Governor Sam Brownback for the announcement of his plan to boost the percentage of students who are career and college ready upon high school graduation.  The plan, which proposes improvements to career and technical education (CTE) programs, is part of Governor Brownback's Road Map for Kansas commitments to excel in education.

From KACTE’s perspective the Governor’s plan publically recognizes the importance of technical education at the secondary and post-secondary level. The plan does away with the traditional .5 weighting in its current form and retains that same amount to benefit secondary students through a different method. The plan is intended to decrease barriers for high school students to attend post-secondary institutions by paying for tuition for the students, transportation funding to the school districts and a $1000 per student receiving a certificate to the home school district.

For complete information, download these materials that include a press release, information about the Governor's Road Map, budget information, and more.

KSDE Update

The Kansas Department of Education has updated the Governor’s School Finance Plan announced last week on Wednesday, Dec. 14. Note that “vocational” is one of the weighting items specifically listed as being eliminated. However, as recently as today there is active talk at the highest levels about keeping the “vocational weighting” intact in a companion technical education funding plan. As we learn more about it we will let you know.

The latest summary from KSDE is available here or by downloading the pdf here.

On Dec. 14, Governor Brownback’s staff unveiled more details about their plan to overhaul the K-12 education funding formula.  No proposed legislation has been released so the details of the plan are only what the Governor has made available in summary documents.  

We are told that this formula takes all weighted funding out to help equalize and fund it.  Without seeing the actual details we can only assume that means the .5 vocational weighting as well.

Follow this link to the Topeka Capital story on the release: http://cjonline.com/news/2011-12-14/brownback-staffer-unveils-school-finance-proposal  

The documents released can be found below:
Governor Proposal by District
Governor School Finance Press Release
Governor School Finance FAQs
Governor School Finance Summary

This proposal has a long way to go before it becomes anyone’s reality and the details are revealed.  Our advice to all of you is to proceed slowly and with caution in any contacts with policymakers before we see the actual language proposed and have talking points based on that detail to work from. 

Our caution is based in part on information that there is at least one plan under active consideration regarding technical education that would preserve the .5 weighting and actually add new money to technical education.  It is of interest to the Governor and may very well parallel the more sweeping school finance plan. 

We hope to have more details the first of next week to make available to you about that initiative.  Stay tuned.