Kristi+Konda

Here is my powerpoint and my paper

Also, uploaded is the testimonies from the committee for your reading and I used some as references.



State of Kansas House Education Committee I have a unique opportunity this semester to intern in Topeka for House of Representative member Lana Gordon. Representative Gordon has several committee assignments. She serves on the Education Committee, Health and Human Services, Local Government and is the chairwoman for the Economic Development Tourism Committee. She also serves on the Joint Committee on Arts and Cultural Resources and is the Vice Chairwoman for the Joint Committee on Economic Development. For my proposal project I will be doing a study of the operations of the House education Committee. I will have the opportunity to observe the committee from many different aspects. I will be able to observe the committee not only as a student and a taxpayer but as an intern hearing Representative Gordon’s point of view and the interaction that I have with other legislators and the constituents in the district that live and work in District 52, Representative Gordon’s district. Since, my dad and his wife are both teachers and I work at K-state I will be able to hear different opinions and options on the issues. The House Education Committee has twenty-one members. It contains thirteen republican members with Clay Aurand as Chairman and eight democrats with Valencia Winn, as the ranking minority members. Each member is from a different part of the state and when interacting with the whole committee and voicing their opinions you can tell whether they are from the Eastern or Western part of the state, who they lobbying for, who are their supporters, whether they are fiscally conservative and also how they interact with other people. The House Education committee is important because it’s the starting process for a bill to become a law. Bill that will help or hurt education polices for constituents all across the state of Kansas. It helps determine how effectively K-12 and higher education will operate. Bill concerning education is introduced in the Education committee by any legislator. They then are sent to the education committee where it’s put through hearings, deliberations and approvals including amendments. The committee votes on it and sends it to the House floor where the bill is rejected or voted upon. It then is sent to the Senate Where they vote on it. If it passes it is sent to the governor for his signature and the bill becomes a law. The bill sometimes goes through rigorous processes and it takes a lot of debating on the committee in order for the bill to be sent out of the committee and sometimes it’s not even sent out of the committee. During the 2010 Legislative Session, legislators will have an especially difficult time finding ways to not only come up with money and stretch what money they do have. Everyone from K-12 schools to high education, to the State Board of Education, teachers and employers are constantly asking for more money. How do you decide what is most important and who should get the most money? The State of Kansas General fund allots for 43.9% of the General fund budget to go towards education funding. On January 13, 2010, Governor Parking made the following statement concerning education budget, the estimated 2010-11 general fund budget under the recommendations for a base state aid per pupil (BSAPP) of $4,062 ($50 increase),and the estimated 2010-11 general fund budget assuming a BSAPP of $3,726 as a result of no increase in state revenue.” An article in the Hutchinson News also said, “Area school districts would realize a modest 1 percent increase in general state aid under Gov. Mark Parkinson's proposed budget for 2010-11 but could suffer losses of up to 6.3 percent if the Legislature doesn't come up with $400 million in new state revenue for all agencies. Parkinson’s budget documents say that without those new revenues, state aid to K-12 education would have to be cut by $187 million. That would primarily be in base state aid per pupil, which would fall from the current $4,012 to $3,726. A year ago, base aid was $4,400.” Article 65 of the Kansas Statues says the Sixty-five percent of money appropriated or distributed provided by state to schools districts shall be spend on classroom instruction. The statute also says that “"instruction" means the activities dealing directly with the interaction between teachers and students and may be provided in a school classroom, in another location such as a home or hospital, and in other learning situations such as those involving co curricular activities” Each committee meeting the education committee has a different agenda. If they are hearing a bill that day different groups testify for and against the bill. Each group has different agendas and some groups may come together for support. Lobbyists push their agendas so their bills can get passed or vetoed and constituent’s voices are heard. There are currently several house bills in the education committee including: 2006, 2061, 2101, 2104, 2153, 2181, 2184, 2199 (re-referred), 2200, 2227, 2228, 2237, 2252, 2298, 2307, 2338, 2357, 2409, 2410, 2433, and 2495. You can find the full text of the bill on the Kansas Legislature website and each one of these bills should be heard sometime during the committee meetings. The Education committee meets Monday through Friday at 9:00 am in Docking State Office Building Room 711 sometimes they don’t meeting dependent per week. The House Calendar says the agenda and the bills that they will be hearing on for that week. The room is small maximum capacity is only 49 and the room does get very full. The room is set up in a U shape with the chairman at the middle of the U and the rest of the committee meeting around him. There is a long table that comes out in the middle of the U from the chairman where people take notes and the speaker’s podium is at the top. There are chairs at the back of the room for spectators. People wishing to appear before the committee must contact the assistant of the education committee, Janet Henning, 24 hours prior to the meeting in which you wish to testify. You must also provide 35 copies of the written testimony to the Assistant by 8:30 am in the committee room. Due to the rooms size it limits the amount of people that attend the committee meeting and often times people has to wait outside between items on the agenda. The chairman calls on each person wishing to speak and the chairman usually leads the meeting. There are also several players that play vital roles in the committee meetings. The legislators of course play a very vital role because they tell the needs of their constituents and the citizens of Kansas to the rest of the committee. They fight for what right and what they want to be passed. There are also several lobbyists in the committee rooms supporting different organizations such as Kansas Board of Realtors, and Kansas School Boards. They lobby for those organizations they are supporting and allow for the organization opinions to come through without them actually being there. Not only will I be getting knowledge about the education committee from firsthand experience and interaction. There is a vast amount of information out there on the background to education finance and issues in Kansas out there. The House calendar and journal available on the Kansas legislature website (www.KSlegislature.org) is updated every single day and it tells the agenda and status of each bill. The Kansas Legislature website also tell where each legislature is from and their occupation so you can determine what different issues are important them. The Legislative Research Department has background information and the Governors Budget Report is also posted on the Kansas Division of Budget website. There are also various newspaper articles that have appeared throughout the state. I hope to learn more about the legislative process and what actually goes on by observing committee meetings. I want to be able not to look at the committee as a meeting but as a process and what happens through it all. It has many different voices and people wanting their opinion heard. I want to be able to see what goes on that other people don’t know about. What other items should I be looking for at the different committee meetings?
 * Will include a House of Representatives map in my final report with education committee members highlighted***
 * Should I focus on one issue or one bill?**