Kansas Association of Community College Trustees
700 SW Jackson, Suite 1000 • Topeka, KS 66603-3757 • 785-357-5156 • FAX 785-357-5157
• 19cc@kacct.org
Sheila Frahm, Executive Director
Policy
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700 S. W. Jackson, Ste. 1000, Topeka, Kansas 66603 - (785)-357-5156 |
Positive Response to Our Outreach….Now
that legislators have found their offices – remember that 80 members of
the House have been relocated to office space in the Docking State Office
Building, immediately to the west of the Statehouse – KACCT hand delivered
to each House and Senate member a personalized welcome letter with
information about who we are and how they can contact us.
While we list trustees for each school by name only, we did include
all presidents’ names along with a telephone number and encouraged them to
call if they had the opportunity to visit a community college campus.
Included in the letter was a request that they let us know if they
have attended or graduated from a Kansas community college.
We have already heard from…
Workforce
Development Report Delayed….Late
Thursday afternoon after nearly two hours of testimony from Secretary of
Commerce Howard Fricke and High School Career and Technical Coordinator,
Susan Symons, from the Pottawatomie Consortium, senators and representatives
gratefully accepted Sheila Frahm’s offer to reschedule her presentation
concerning workforce development at the community college level.
The legislators attending were frustrated about the slow progress the
Department of Commerce is making to bring together the state agencies that
are involved in workforce development, beyond the very successful alliance
that has been forged with higher education.
While Sheila misses the opportunity to present just once to this
combined meeting of the House Economic Development Committee, the House
Commerce and Labor Committee and Senate Commerce Committee, she was assured
of an invitation to each committee which, in the end, may prove a more
productive venue for sharing information about workforce development
activities on each of the 19 community college campuses. Hearings were held this
week on HB 2572, a clean-up bill concerning private and out-of-state post
secondary educational institutions, and HB 2575, Kansas challenge to
secondary school pupils including concurrent enrollment, gifted children and
technical colleges. HB 2575 is
the result of nearly two years of study by the Kansas Association of Chief
Academic Officers with input from both the System Council of Presidents and
the Kansas Board of Regents. The
Committee will take action on both bills on Monday. More (Political)
Smiles….I don't make jokes. I
just watch the government A
little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool
trusts either of them…….P.J. O'Rourke Education
Budget Committee Changes…Speaker Doug Mays made some committee changes this week
including the House Education Budget Committee exchanging Kevin Yoder,
R-Overland Park, (who replaced Dean Newton, who resigned his House seat) for
Bonnie Huy, R-Wichita. Other
committee members include Bill Feuerborn, D-Garnett; Lana Gordon, R-Topeka;
Bob Grant, D-Cherokee; Steve Huebert, R-Valley Center; Carl Krehbiel,
R-Moundridge; Joe McLeland, R-Wichita; Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita; and Becky
Hutchins, chrm., R-Holton. The
Education Budget Committee will hear from community colleges on Monday,
February 13, and anticipate completing their piece of the budget by February
21. The
Week Ahead….Committee
meetings of interest next week include:
HB 2604: Midwestern Higher Education commission Wednesday,
January 25: House
Higher Education HB 2602: Energy conservation project financing for technical and
community colleges Thursday,
January 26: Senate Education Overview of higher education
issues before the 2006 Legislature by Reginald Robinson, President and CEO,
Kansas Board of Regents
Important
Resources to gather legislative and budget information:
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