BY RAEGAN NEUFELD<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If adopted by the Kansas Legislature, House Bill 2218<\/a> would become the Sunflower Education Equity Act and provide an education savings account for children in the state. However, its introduction has public school officials worried about the effect it could have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Introduced by the K-12 Education Budget Committee at the end of January, the bill would allow guardians to use money from state taxes towards a private or home school education for their child. Since its introduction, the bill has gone back to the K-12 Education Budget Committee for amendments and most recently was referred to the Appropriations Committee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAn education savings account is a type of voucher,\u201d said Leah Fliter, assistant director of Advocacy and Governmental Relations for the Kansas Association of School Boards, \u201cwhich means public tax money is taken away from public schools and given to students so they can pay for either private or home-schooling expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While supporters of the bill say it allows families to choose the best education for their children with less of a financial burden, Fliter voiced concern, stating private, \u201cfor-profit\u201d schools can be more selective of their students and what they teach. Similarly, Fliter said the state of Kansas has no regulations \u2014 complying with state standards, reporting progress, etc. \u2014 for home schools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c(The bill) penalizes public schools and takes funding away from them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Hays USD 489 Superintendent Ron Wilson, his district\u2019s proximity to Thomas More Prep-Marian Junior\/Senior High School is a cause for concern. An education savings account may be what causes some students to transfer, something a district without a private school nearby will not be impacted by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDuring a school year, people get upset for various reasons, and now it\u2019s going to be a thing where they say, \u2018I\u2019m taking my kid and I\u2019m taking my money,\u2019 because it\u2019s a way to get back at you,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause they don\u2019t like decisions that have been made and invariably it\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While public schools receive a small amount of money from local and federal taxes, state taxes are their primary source of funds, which is why people like Fliter and Wilson have reacted so strongly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that I\u2019m against private education, but I am against saying you can take public dollars to educate at a private school,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As mentioned, supporters of House Bill 2218 view it positively as a way to help families afford a non-public education. According to TMP-Marian Principal Chad Meitner, these supporters include advocates for education choice and customized education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven though we\u2019re one of the most affordable schools, as far as private schools in the state, it\u2019s still a barrier for folks,\u201d Meitner said. \u201cAny amount of money at all is sometimes too much. If there\u2019s a great educational opportunity for them and they\u2019re being held back financially, then a bill like this really helps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is still more to be done if the bill, or one similar, goes anywhere. According to Fliter, the process may end instead with a push for House Bill 2218<\/a> and Senate Bill 83<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat they really are trying to do is create controversy, concern and angst,\u201d Fliter said. \u201cThen what\u2019s going to happen, maybe it will be March or April before this happens, but they\u2019ll just say, \u2018Instead, let\u2019s fall back on this other tuition tax credit expansion bill,\u2019 which they\u2019ve already also passed out of committee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The aforementioned bills would expand the state\u2019s tax credit scholarship law, which currently benefits low-income students. The expansion would apply to those with a higher income and increase the donor\u2019s tax write-off from 70 percent to 100 percent. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY RAEGAN NEUFELD If adopted by the Kansas Legislature, House Bill 2218 would become the Sunflower Education Equity Act and provide an education savings account… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":54567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3397,11,3570,14211],"tags":[2145,15100,5328,5298,15101,15099,14226,949],"class_list":["post-71422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-area-news","category-news","category-politics-news","category-statenational","tag-government","tag-house-bill-2218","tag-kansas-government","tag-kansas-house","tag-private-education","tag-public-school","tag-raegan-neufeld","tag-state-legislature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/capitol_exterior_north02.jpg?fit=956%2C636&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71422"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71625,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71422\/revisions\/71625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}