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 program, funding has been zeroed out." Light also said SparkWheel was the only other state fund in that table that was zeroed out and noted special-education reappropriations: "that $23,000 is still in there, but the $10,000,000 that the House added in '26 is not." She reported that special education funding for 2026 stood at $601,000,000 on the state aid side.

Several senators questioned the scope of the chair's recommendation and sought clarity about why the committee appeared to treat the state aid portion separately from KSDE operating costs. Senator Sykes said the committee had historically made recommendations for the full Department of Education and asked, "why are we not making that recommendation this year?" Sykes and others pressed whether additional items that appeared on the chart had been added after the chair's motion and whether those additions had been publicly voted on. The chair responded that she had met with staff while preparing her recommendation and that some line items were tied to federal funds or had indirect relationships to finance formulas; she said those ties affected which items were included on the document presented to the committee.

Senator Petty and others said removing prior base funding items without explicit committee discussion — for example mentor teacher programming, professional development, teacher excellence and computer science grants, and CTE transportation — would effectively delete baseline supports and deserved fuller debate. The chair offered to make another motion either to include the additional funding shown on the table or to stand with the lesser amount the committee originally discussed. At the end of the meeting the chair stated the committee's recommendations had been sent to Ways and Means; Senator Sykes objected that he did not believe the committee had taken a vote and reiterated concerns that as much as $11,000,000 in current-year funding and other program dollars were affected.

The committee record shows two points of tension that members said merit further clarity: (1) whether the motion as carried included the supplemental line items reflected on the state aid spreadsheet distributed after yesterday's meeting and (2) whether the committee's customary practice of recommending both state aid and operating funding for KSDE had changed this year. The chair emphasized that committee recommendations are advisory and that Senate Ways and Means and the full Senate can still debate and modify the proposals.

The committee then moved on to a Master Teachers presentation; the chair closed the budget discussion and the committee adjourned after additional business.

Ending: The Education Committee's recommendation will be considered by the Senate Ways and Means Committee; senators seeking further clarification said they intend to press for explicit line-item votes and transparent documentation before the budget advances further.