By NICK GOSNELL, Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON — Though K-12 education looks different than it has in previous years, that doesn't necessarily mean that it will be funded that differently at the end of the day, but the aggregate dollars may go down.
"It's going to be hard to get out from under it," said Republican Rep. Paul Waggoner. "I will say when the 2008 recession hit, with the same legal ruling, the school districts were very amenable to it, just because they understood the financial position we were in. We'll have to see how it plays out this time."
Democratic Representative Jason Probst believes there will be some cuts to education, as well.
"In 2008, the school districts kind of viewed the situation as a shared sacrifice," Probst said. "Despite the fact that there was a ruling in place and litigation going on, they were agreeable to reducing. I think we're all going to have to, across the board, everyone's going to have to share in this sacrifice and I don't expect that K-12 will escape that."
Will the neccessities of online education create either opportunities or necessities for less classroom teaching? That remains to be seen.
"Innovation is often born out of crisis," Probst said. "You have to look at the situation. You have to change the way you do things. I do think that this has opened up the availability of some tools that we hadn't been forced to examine before. It also means that we're going to have to have pretty robust broadband access throughout the state to deliver remote education, but I do think this situation has brought to the fore the fact that maybe you can get an education and not be in a building, necessarily and that we can deliver high quality education, connect the best teachers in the state with the students, wherever they are."
Waggoner is impressed by the progress, as well.
"We certainly have seen a huge growth in distance learning as it would be on a higher education level," Waggoner said. "A lot of things are done online. That has always been sort of in the background in K-12. I think part of it actually is what are going to be your results? You know, you've had a couple of months with kids learning online. I mean, how do their tests scores do? Is it comparable to in classroom learning? It could also be, certain parents might feel more comfortable if their kids were at home."
This could especially be true if there is a potential second wave of the virus in the fall, as most medical experts seem to believe right now.