Senate committee approves Kansas State Department of Education budget after debate over special education funding

The Senate Committee on Ways and Means approved the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) budget for fiscal years 2025–2027 as amended, after extended debate over special education funding and several failed motions to restore specific line items.

Committee member Senator Erickson reported the KSDE budget by WebEx and moved that the committee report the FY2025, FY2026 and FY2027 budgets favorably. The motion was seconded and later carried when the committee voted to approve the package as amended.

Why it matters: Debate focused on whether the House and Senate recommendations adequately meet the state’s court‑ordered school funding obligations under the Gannon litigation and whether particular expenditures removed from the committee’s substitute for House Bill 2007 should be restored. Committee members argued about maintenance‑of‑effort items that they described as already encumbered or paid in FY2025 and about longer‑term special education adequacy.

Discussion and actions: Senator Petty filed and read a minority report opposing the committee’s recommendations. Petty argued the committee’s changes “were made hastily and inadequately fund our schools,” said the Gannon remedy requires annual CPI‑U adjustments, and listed specific items she sought to restore, including $10,000,000 SGF for special education services for 2026, $1,300,000 SGF for a mentor teacher program (FY2025), $1,770,000 SGF for professional development state aid (FY2025), $1,482,338 SGF for career and technical education transportation state aid (FY2025) and $5,000,000 for school safety and security grants (FY2025). Petty moved to add those FY2025 items back into the KSDE budget; that motion failed on the committee floor.

Members pressed competing factual points. Senator Erickson noted that including local option LOB transfers to special education in prior years would have pushed the statewide special education funding to above 100 percent of excess costs in projections, and she cited reviser and research runs for cash‑balance figures. Other members, including Senator Hoelscher and Senator Peterson, emphasized that many districts carry operating and contingency balances and that local option budgets vary by district.

Several targeted amendments to the KSDE recommendation passed during debate. The committee approved a proviso moving $50,000 for the SPARKviel program from KSDE to the Department for Children and Families (DCF) so the funding flows from the same source as other SPARKviel dollars. The committee also approved language authorizing KSDE to expand an existing elementary teacher training program to include middle school teachers (no new appropriation), and it approved an amendment to support fiber/broadband build‑out with a 90/10 federal/state match in cases where a federal application deadline required state matching money.

Votes at key points: Motions to restore multiple FY2025 encumbered items to the budget failed. A later motion that set the KSDE budget as amended passed on a committee voice/record vote; Senator Petty asked to be recorded as voting against final adoption.

What remains: The committee placed the KSDE package into the budget bill as the Senate committee’s position. Several members said the measures and funding sources will be subject to further consideration in conference with the House, where some items appear with different funding sources or levels.

Sources and quotes: "We do not support or agree with the senate education committee's recommendations for the Kansas State Department of Education for FY25 through 27," said Senator Petty in presenting the minority report. Senator Erickson described the committee recommendation as following the court‑ordered Gannon remedy and noted reviser research about special education funding and cash balances.

Next steps: The KSDE budget and the amendments the committee approved will be carried forward in the Ways and Means committee’s version of the FY2025–FY2027 budget bill for conference with the House.