Each year, KSBA releases a summary of priorities for improving education and strengthening districts. Listed below are KSBA's
top legislative priorities for the 2023 Regular Session of the General Assembly to support school boards in advancing public education. A downloadable/printable version of KSBA's legislative priorities is
available here.
Supporting local board leadership of school operations, to address the unique needs of each district.
Our schools belong to their communities. We need the General Assembly to continue supporting local board authority, to advance accountability to the whole community recognizing that each district truly is unique, from Jefferson County to Southgate Independent.
We ask the General Assembly to protect district-level decision-making over the issues that call for local solutions and may include use of local resources, and to not enact uniform issue-by-issue mandates.
Continuing to review school facility requirements and construction processes, to collaboratively develop legislation with local boards, construction stakeholders, and the Department of Education.
The legislature passed HB 678 in 2022 to provide critical and immediate – but temporary – relief to local boards undertaking school facility improvement projects in this time of historic inflation and supply chain disruption. HB 678 requires the department to review all regulations and processes involving school facilities, and to help craft legislation to improve efficiency.
We ask the General Assembly to continue to monitor this project, and to collaborate with all stakeholders to develop comprehensive legislation for 2024.
Restructuring state-required professional development, to refocus time and resources on the training most impactful on student achievement.
Many hours of state-mandated district employee training have accumulated over the years. The multitude of topics and amount of required training hinders the development of stronger instructional skills among our educators.
We ask the General Assembly to restructure PD statutes to allow educators to primarily focus on wholistic and strategic improvement of their core instructional practices.
Expanding access to early childhood education programs, and quality childcare for working families.
We know that not all our students are learning at goal levels of proficiency, and some students are far behind others. We also know that many students entering our classrooms for the first time have not had access to early learning.
To help us help students be ready to learn, we ask the General Assembly to continue its efforts to expand access to early childhood education, as well as childcare opportunities that allow parents to work while trusting that their children are safe and nurtured.
Continuing the ongoing analysis of school funding this session, to identify ways to make the next biennial budget even stronger for students
We are in the middle of a biennium in which the legislature increased education funding in many ways for which KSBA has long advocated. We ask the General Assembly to continue the work of the School Funding Task Force and last session’s budget process, to analyze how we can further improve funding adequacy and equity, including new, more flexible revenue options for school boards.