<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/2/1581348968201.jpeg" alt="Mark Tallman with KASB" />
 <figcaption>Mark Tallman with KASB</figcaption>
 </figure>By NICK GOSNELL, <a href="https://hutchpost.com">Hutch Post</a>
HUTCHINSON — 
Ultimately, the Vice President for Advocacy with the Kansas Association 
of School Boards believes the renewal of high-density at-risk funding 
for K-12 education will pass, but the devil is in the details."Will
 the legislature put some additional restrictions or limitations or 
requirements on how those dollars are used?" asked Mark Tallman. "From 
our members, as local school boards, we certainly have no problem with 
those dollars being directed and look at good ways, effective ways to 
spend those dollars. We're always a little concerned, if the legislature
 gets too restrictive and may limit the ability of local districts to 
try to figure out new or innovative ways or better ways locally to spend
 those dollars."Tallman notes that test scores alone do not measure whether money is being spent correctly."Some
 of what we do with at-risk dollars might not be focused on getting our 
math scores up," Tallman said. "They might be focused on dealing with 
student mental health issues or emotional stability or behavioral issues
 or study skills that you have to tackle first before kids will be ready
 to get to higher level academic achievement."With that said, there are some measures where Kansas is showing success."Every
 year we see that the percent of Kansans who have completed high school,
 who have any type of college such as technical degrees, have four-year 
degrees and more. Those numbers have increased every year and their pay 
has increased every year, the additional compensation you get. We can't 
bring that back to individual districts, but what we do know is that, in
 general, our system is producing a better educated population than in 
the past."At-risk funding has been one of the points of emphasis in the recent Kansas Supreme Court cases regarding school funding.

Tallman: At-risk funding will pass, but restrictions still unknown