With just two days left in the 2017 General Assembly session, lawmakers are still weighing bills that would usher in sweeping changes to Kentucky’s education system.

Among those bills are Senate Bills 1 and 153, which are both headed to the House floor for a final vote Tuesday, a day before the last regular work day. SB1 would rework Kentucky’s K-12 education system by giving the state and local districts more control rather than the federal government.

SB153 would set up a new funding model for Kentucky’s colleges and universities based on performance on outcomes like degree production or credit hour accumulation.

Rep. Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, said he plans to vote for SB1 when it’s up for final approval.

“I think the bill has some strength and does some things that need to be done,” he said.

Under SB1, teachers and the public would be a part of a staggered review process of state standards in social studies, math, science and language arts every six years, among many other changes the bill introduces.

Although he supports the bill, Richards said he plans to introduce an amendment to include advanced students rather than exclusively focusing on those who are struggling.

“The bill speaks of struggling students and speaks of grade level students but doesn’t address advanced learners or gifted students,” he said.

Richards stressed the amendment would not harm the bill and that “it just emphasizes a group of students that are omitted from the bill.”

He said the amendment has support from lawmakers of both parties in the House and those in the gifted education community.

Among its supporters is Julia Roberts, an advocate for gifted studies, and the executive director of the Center for Gifted Studies and the Gatton Academy at Western Kentucky University. She helped advise on the amendment’s language, she said.

“It’s important to mention in there because the language had stressed struggling students and using on-level resources,” she said. “Advanced students need appropriate resources in order to continue learning at the level at which they are able to learn.”

Roberts said school should be a place for all students to learn, regardless of ability.

“Everyone goes to school to learn and that includes children who are capable of learning at a more complex level and at a faster pace,” she said.

House lawmakers will also decide on SB153 next week.

Under the bill, Kentucky’s public universities and community colleges would see their state funding tied to credit hours earned and degree production in science, technology and health fields, along with other outcomes.

In a statement earlier this week, the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence described the bill as “an opportunity to move toward a more transparent and accountable system of postsecondary education.”

“While tying funding to performance metrics will not on its own push Kentucky to its educational goals, making the case for postsecondary education through better transparency and accountability is worth the effort,” Brigitte Blom Ramsey, the committee’s executive director, said in the statement.