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District lobbyist outlines fast-moving Kansas budget session and bills affecting schools
Summary
District lobbyist Stuart Little briefed the board on an accelerated legislative calendar, the legislature's alternative baseline budget approach, and bills on school scholarships, school finance and policies affecting school operations.
Shawnee Mission’s lobbyist Stuart Little told the school board on Tuesday that the 2025 Kansas legislative session is moving quickly and that the legislature has taken steps to set a lower baseline budget with additions considered as separate items.
Little said the Legislature’s leadership and a Legislative Coordinating Committee met over the fall to create a near-term baseline that starts from a flatter position than the governor’s traditional recommended budget. The effect, he told trustees, is that additions to K–12 spending must be proposed as separate increases rather than being part of a larger governor-proposed baseline, which can compress opportunities for hearings and additions in a 90-day session.
Little summarized bills of interest to districts: proposals to expand school scholarship programs for nonpublic schools; bills that would require public entities to use names and genders from birth certificates for records; an increase in capital outlay mills to fund security and ADA costs; increases to minimum district project thresholds; and proposals to reduce a 20-mill property-tax levy to 18.5 mills with legislative mechanisms intended to backfill some K–12 funding from the state budget.
He also listed items in the governor’s budget being discussed by committees: full funding of base state aid per pupil, a two-year funding commitment for predictability, the second year of a $72 million special education allotment, and a $5.5 million proposal to cover co-pays for students eligible for reduced-price lunch. Little said the House Budget Committee planned to complete its recommendations quickly and that hearings were underway at the time of his presentation.
Board members asked questions about how the Legislative Coordinating Committee’s process differs from previous practice. Little said the committee’s approach is not yet statutory but that leadership has discussed making the process a standing practice, and he said the change has the practical effect of making additions to the baseline more difficult in a shorter session.
Little closed by noting ongoing work on the rollout of the state’s literacy blueprint and said district lobbyists will continue monitoring bills and the budget as the session progresses. No board action was taken on the update.
