The Kansas Senate has given approval to Senate Bill 267.
If it passes both chambers, the bill would rely on federal COVID-19 funding rather than Kansas tax dollars to cover up to $568 million of public education obligations in the proposed two-year budget. Tom Hawk, state senator, says disputes have arose surrounding this bill. He adds that the intentions his fellow colleague had while introducing the bill aren’t as bad as they seem.
“What she was hoping to do by cutting that was to be able to use the new federal funds, the new recovery funds called ARP, the latest bill that was just passed by congress and signed by the president. So, the hope was that we could use that money,” Hawk adds.
Hawk says they have been told, initially, that they would not be able to use the relief funds in that way. He says the requirements for most federal funds is that you cannot supplant local effort with federal funds nor can you change what is your local maintenance of effort.
Hawk says while the intentions weren’t bad, he believes the outcomes could become disastrous. He tells KMAN more about the amendment he proposed regarding the bill.
“Let’s just wait until we get to our final budget bill in May,” Hawk says. “This is the mega budget and the final one is called omnibus. I think if we look at omnibus we will have a better idea of whether we can use those federal funds. If we can it may be a good idea, if we can’t then we need to fill that $568 million dollars back in the budget, and I’m going to be working hard to make sure we do that.”
The Senate voted 24-13 on Wednesday, to send the two-year budget bill to the House. Hawk says the legislature is waiting to see what the final budget looks like before making any ruling on K-12 funding.
For more information on Senate Bill 267 visit kslegislature.org.
