Board Offering Technical Ed Funding Plans

State education officials are offering two plans for Kansas legislator to consider that would increase state funding for career and technical education programs.

The plans, depending on which formula legislators adopt, would increase education spending for the state’s 286 school districts by between $9 million and $12 million.

Deputy Education Commissioner Dale Dennis said the figures were determined after surveying all districts about the costs of providing the classes.

Legislators asked education officials in 2011 to come up with a funding mechanism for the programs that recognizes that some courses are more expensive than others, such as automotive or welding.

The 2011 changes to technical education programs were aimed at providing students with necessary skills to enter the job market after graduation.

Associated Press information from: Lawrence Journal-World