Brief ⁽¹⁾

Effective July 1, 2004, SB 11, as amended, would make the State Board of Regents the lead agency for supervision of the administration of vocational education under provisions of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998. The State Board of Education currently is the lead agency.

SB 11 also would convert the Northwest Kansas Area Vocational-Technical School to the Northwest Kansas Technical College.

Background

SB 11 in its original version was requested for introduction by the State Board of Regents and the State Board of Education. The House Committee amended the bill to include provisions of HB 2001, which concerns the Northwest Kansas Area Vocational-Technical School. HB 2001 has passed the House but, because it amends a section that also is contained in SB 11 (KSA 2000 Supp. 72-4412), it is necessary to amend SB 11 to include the section contained in HB 2001 in order to avoid a conflict. The House Committee made no other change to SB 11.

Legislation enacted by the 2000 Legislature makes the State Board of Education the lead agency for supervision of the administration of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998. The responsibility had resided with the State Board of Education until the enactment of the Higher Education Coordination Act of 1999, at which time the responsibility was moved to the State Board of Regents.

Under the federal act, funds for vocational education are received by both secondary and postsecondary institutions. Federal law requires that only one entity in a state can be designated the administrator of the act. While responsibility for administering the act was moved to the State Board of Regents, staff and associated funding for administrative expenses remained with the State Department of Education and the State Board of Education allocated federal vocational education funding both to secondary schools under its jurisdiction and to postsecondary institutions under the State Board of Regents.

The 2000 Legislature moved responsibility for administering the act back to the State Board of Education, in recognition of the fact that the State Department was performing the administrative duties of the lead agency. However, the legislation has a July 1, 2001, termination date of Kansas' acceptance of the provisions of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998, in order to ensure that the Legislature would make a decision as to whether the State Board of Education should continue to be the designated administrator of the act or whether the designation should be transferred to the State Board of Regents. Both boards were asked to continue to work out an agreement that would be the basis for a permanent solution to the matter.

SB 11 would implement the agreement the boards have worked out. Under the bill, the lead agency designation would continue to reside with the State Board of Education through June 30, 2004, which is the date the existing state plan for vocational education that is required under the federal act no longer will be effective.

According to the fiscal note prepared by the Division of the Budget, there would be no net fiscal impact of the legislation. However, it is likely that 11 or 12 staff positions allocated to the State Department of Education whose duties are associated with administering the act will be transferred to the State Board of Regents, which would result in a reduction of staff for the State Department and an increase for the State Board of Regents.

Provisions of HB 2001 amended into SB 11 concern the Northwest Kansas Area Vocational-Technical School located in Goodland, and would convert the school from an area vocational school to a technical college.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext.cgi