Kansas Senate advances bill expanding low-income scholarship program; broad school choice bill remains in committee

A Kansas measure to expand a low-income school choice program has passed the Senate but a universal school choice bill is still working its way through various committees. 

The Republican-controlled Senate withstood attempts by Democrats to alter the bill, ultimately voting 24-16 in its favor Wednesday. Seven Republicans joined all nine Democrats to oppose it. The margin would be enough to override a possible veto from Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly.

If enacted, SB 87 would raise the annual cap on the scholarship program from $10 million to $15 million and grant individuals and businesses full credit for donations made to the tax credit scholarship program, instead of the current 75%. The cap on scholarships would also increase by 25% annually in years where at least 75% of the available scholarship funds are claimed. The maximum scholarship is $8,000, although the average award is about $3,300.

The program, which serves children from families earning 250% or less of the federal poverty level, has grown rapidly since the COVID-19 pandemic, doubling from the previous year to 2,360 participants in 2024-25. 

Proponents say the program will continue to grow and the amount of donations increase if the bill becomes law. 

The measure would also allow children of emergency responders, active military personnel, or those in foster care to use the scholarship. 

Democrats repeated accusations that expanding the program would take funding from public schools, which made Sen. Renee Erickson, the bill’s sponsor and chair of the Education Committee, indignant. 

“It’s incredulous that they would say that this small amount of students and money is somehow going to decimate or be a threat to our public schools,” she said of the tax credit-funded program. “These are dollars that people have donated to a scholarship granting organization. (The $15 million cap) is a drop in the bucket to the $6.1 billion that we allocate for public schools.” 

The measure now heads to the House, which also has a Republican supermajority, but some rural Republicans have been resistant to school choice, something school choice advocates hope to change. 

Universal choice bill 

Another measure, SB 75, which would establish universal school choice in the Sunflower State, was referred to the Senate Ways and Means Committee this week after passing out of the Education Committee. 

The bill would establish an education opportunity tax credit, giving families up to $8,000 annually if their children attend an accredited private school. That drops to $4,000 for an unaccredited private school, although students in schools working toward accreditation “in good faith” can qualify for the higher amount, according to a supplemental note describing the bill as amended from its original proposal. 

In both cases, parents could use the money for tuition, books, materials and equipment related to their child’s education. 

Since the proposal is a tax credit, parents could claim it either in advance during the tax year or as a credit on their annual tax return. And if the credit exceeds the amount of tax owed, the difference can be issued as a refund. 

The program would be capped at $125 million in its first year, but once 90% of the available credits are claimed in a given year, the cap would increase by 25% the next year.  

If the measure passes, the state Department of Revenue estimates all the tax credits would be claimed in the first year, based on the more than 26,000 Kansans currently attending private schools. The accredited private school students alone would qualify for more than $211 million in tax credits if each received $8,000. 

The Legislature has until March 28 to pass the bill, which will face a likely veto from the governor.