Key education legislators Wednesday expressed skepticism with the state law that says special education is supposed to equal 92 percent of excess costs.
House K-12 Education Budget Committee Chairwoman Kristey Williams, R-Augusta, asked why 92 percent was good policy and Vice Chairman Kyle Hoffman, R-Coldwater, said 92 percent was an arbitrary number.
Although the dollar amount of special education state aid is rising, the percentage of “excess costs” covered by state aid is continuing to fall.
Under state law, special education aid is supposed to equal 92 percent of excess costs, which is defined as total special education expenditures, minus the average cost of students in special education if they were in regular education, minus federal special education and Medicaid reimbursement. However, the 92 percent target is not enforced in state law. The actual percentage of excess cost funded this year is estimated at 76.4 percent and projected to fall to 70.8 percent next year and 64.3 percent in 2024 if there is no increase in aid.
Gov. Laura Kelly’s proposed budget would provide $7.6 million increases in special education state aid in the current year (FY 2022) and $7.4 million next year (FY 2023), or about 1.5 percent each year. The State Board of Education has proposed a five-year plan to reach the 92 percent level, which would require an additional $74 million each year.
The K-12 committee is scheduled to discuss the entire public school budget on Thursday.
In other developments, a state audit was released Wednesday that asked the question why developmental courses — sometimes called remedial courses — in college are necessary.
In the 2020 school year, a little more than 11,000 Kansas high school graduates were enrolled in at least one developmental education course, either math or English.
According to a multi-option survey of post-secondary developmental education instructors, the following reasons were given:
— The student has been out of high school for a significant period of time (63 percent)
— The student is not a native English speaker (49 percent).
— The student did not take the appropriate coursework in high school. (43 percent)
— High school course content is not adequate to prepare students for college coursework (43 percent).
— State high school graduation requirements do not adequately prepare students for college. (34 percent).
The Legislative Division of Post Audit survey was sent to 342 post-secondary developmental education instructors and 144 responded for a response rate of 42 percent.
Post Audit also sent a survey to 11,547 high school teachers, principals, and guidance counselors. Only 14 percent of surveys were returned. According to that survey, the following reasons were given for the necessity of developmental courses:
— The student did not receive enough educational support at home (69 percent).
— The student received passing grades without mastering the content (65 percent).
— The student did not take the appropriate coursework to prepare students for college coursework (50 percent).
— The content of high school courses is not adequate to prepare students for college coursework (31 percent).
— The student had special needs that were not adequately addressed in high school (23 percent).
— State high school graduation requirements do not adequately prepare students for college (20 percent).
The Kansas Board of Regents said about half of Kansas post-secondary institutions offer co-requisite math or English courses, which place students directly into college-level course but also provide additional classroom supports.
The audit was requested by Rep. Williams. She said the findings raised concerns. “We’re looking at some systemic problems,” Williams said. She said as a taxpayer, “We’re paying twice for these remedial courses.”
Here is a link to the audit.
The Joint Legislative Post-Audit Committee also on Wednesday approved the audit proposal for virtual school expenditures.
The audit will look at two questions:
— How much do statewide virtual schools operated by other states spend and what are their academic outcomes?
— How do Kansas’ virtual school expenditures and academic outcomes compare to a selection of states that operates statewide virtual schools?
The audit is due in January 2023.
In addition, the Joint Legislative Post-Audit Committee approved a limited-scope audit proposal on an aspect of the Tax Credit for Low Income Students Scholarship Program.
The program provides scholarships to low-income students to attend private schools in Kansas. Kansas taxpayers, including individuals and businesses, can make contributions to nonprofit organizations that issue private school scholarships to K-12 students.
State law requires nonprofit organizations to use at least 90 percent of the contributions they receive for student scholarships within three years. If they don’t, nonprofit organizations are not supposed to take any new contributions until 90 percent of the existing contributions have been disbursed to students. The audit would investigate whether participating nonprofit organizations are meeting the distribution requirement.
Meanwhile, the Senate Education Committee discussed the recent annual foster care report card.
The report card is produced by the Kansas State Department of Education and Kansas Department for Children and Families. It includes several data points on how children in the foster care system do in school.
The report shows children in foster care lag behind the statewide average in rates of graduation, attendance and dropouts and state assessment performance.
Also, the Senate Transparency and Ethics Committee recommended approval of SB 386, which will limit fees for copying and staff time under the Kansas Open Records Act.
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