By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A proposal in the Kansas Legislature introduced by Democrat Jarrod Ousley of Merriam would take the cap for remote learning hours off for schools in Kansas.
"I think the concern is that with the latest round of COVID, school districts have been closing down, often, either a combination of having not enough staff or too many students and simply not operating," said Mark Tallman with the Kansas Association of School Boards. "That means, essentially, you make the day up later. The debate, I guess, that we're going to face, is some legislators, clearly the majority that passed this just thought that remote learning is just not adequate and it shouldn't be allowed over a certain level limited threshold."
Given that it was introduced by a minority party member and the makeup of the legislature hasn't fundamentally changed, the chances of it gaining traction are slim, at best.
"Others would argue remote learning can be better than no learning, particularly if it may be an extended period of time," Tallman said. "That doesn't solve all problems, because we still come back to an issue of looking at, depending on why teaching staff may be out, whether they are in a position even to offer remote learning. It would seem to be obvious that there are times when there's quarantining and that kind of issue, so we'll see where this goes. I don't think there's going to be a lot of support among Republican leadership, at least initially."
There are provisions in current law to get exceptions for individual students on a case-by-case basis already.