Troy L. Waymaster, State Representative, 109th Kansas House
March 19, 2018
Kansas Safe and Secure Schools Act
On Tuesday, March 6, the Republican House Leadership, including myself, unveiled House Bill 2773, referred to as the Kansas Safe and Secure Schools Act. This act is a comprehensive approach to make schools safer for our children by ensuring a coordination with schools and law enforcement to improve school security infrastructure.
The bill encourages the Kansas State Board of Education and other agencies to develop statewide standards for school buildings to be safe and secure. In addition, the bill will also empower local school districts to coordinate with local law enforcement, establish the Safe and Secure Schools Grant Program to be used for improvements, provide standardized firearm safety education that may be offered to school districts, and appropriate funding for the Department of Education to evaluate school safety and security plans.
The details of this bill would encourage schools to make improvements, such as reinforced doors, additional security cameras, and provide training opportunities to enhance the overall safety and security of our schools.
The House Appropriations Committee held a hearing on House Bill 2773 on Friday, March 16, with the intent of working the bill on Monday, March 19.
Education Deadline Approaches
Late Thursday, March 15, the comprehensive K-12 education study by Lori Taylor from Texas A&M University was released to the Kansas Legislature. There has been much expectation on what this study would conclude, namely the amount that needs to been funded for K-12 education, especially since the Kansas Supreme Court rendered its opinion of the unconstitutionally of the funding mechanism on October 2, 2017. Leadership decided that the attorneys for the House and the Senate would evaluate the study and then have the details publicly released to a joint hearing with the House and Senate Education committees on Friday, March 16, at 1:30 pm. Lori Taylor is expected to present her study on Monday, March 19, to the House Education Budget Committee.
Appropriations Committee
Last week in the Appropriations Committee, we continued the budget reports from the respective budget committees and held several bill hearings. The major bill that we had a hearing on was Wednesday with House Bill 2468, which will ultimately become the budget bill for the Appropriations Committee. We also had a bill hearing on House Bill 2747, which would abolish the division of post audit with the Legislature and instead create a post audit division within the office of the State Treasurer.
The committee also continued our budget analyses on budgets from certain state agencies and departments. We needed to finish the budget report outs so we can then begin work on the final supplemental budget bill for fiscal years 2018 and 2019. Some of the budgets we heard from were the Kansas Water Office, the Department of Children and Families, and the Department of Education.
Contact Information
As always, if you have any concerns, feel free to contact me (785) 296-7672, visit www.troywaymaster.com or email me at [email protected]. Also, if you happen to visit the statehouse, please let my office know.
It is a distinct honor to serve as your representative for the 109th Kansas House District and the state of Kansas. Please do not hesitate to contact me with your thoughts, concerns, and questions. I always appreciate hearing from the residents of the 109th House District and others from the state of Kansas, as well.