Kansas Senate Education Committee endorses funding recommendation to Ways and Means amid transparency dispute

Madam Chair of the Kansas Senate Education Committee recommended that the committee forward a funding recommendation to Senate Ways and Means to "fully fund schools per Gannon including CPI." Committee members ultimately passed the committee's recommendations to Ways and Means, but several senators raised concerns about whether the committee had approved supplemental line items included in the document distributed after yesterday's meeting.

The chair opened the discussion by saying the proposal "has nothing to do with the operating budget of KSDE, the department," and that the paper before the committee reflected the state aid side of the split between state aid and operations. Committee staff member Jennifer Light summarized the state aid table and flagged several programs whose funding had been removed on the state aid side: "CTE transportation, the funding has been zeroed out. School safety and security grants, funding has been zeroed out. Mentored teacher…