(Photo by Stephen Koranda)This week, a House committee could consider a bill to comply with a Kansas Supreme Court ruling on education funding. That comes after the process got off to a rocky start last week. The bill would increase money for certain education funds that are aimed at reducing disparities between wealthy and poor districts. But the bill includes other education policy changes, and the lawmaker who introduced it also included an expansion of charter schools. That surprised House Speaker Ray Merrick, who said charter schools hadn’t been part of the negotiations. The Stillwell Republican said Friday that he would introduce a new bill without the charter schools expansion to advance the process.
State Representative Marc Rhoades added the charter schools expansion to the bill. The Newton Republican says he wasn’t trying to undermine negotiations on the issue, but he wanted to add charter schools to the discussion.