Ty Masterson has already heard it from a relative in another state: Kansas’ new law banning cell phone use in school will get students’ attention.
Literally.
The Kansas Senate president’s wife’s stepmom has reported seeing it as a teacher in South Carolina, he tells The Heartlander in an exclusive interview Friday.
“She said within weeks of their ban going in you could see the difference in the classroom,” he says.
“The kids were more talkative to her and to each other – the interaction, versus [looking] just down on the screen. She said, honestly, the hardest part was parents that wanted to be able to call their kids or text their kid in the middle of the day. That was their biggest objection.
“Other than that, she said the kids generally liked it. So there were just more kids paying attention, looking up instead of down, and more interaction.”
Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly Thursday signed House Bill 2299, which passed the Republican-led Senate 32-4 and House 84-39.
But then, the bill was always going to be bipartisan, as it was introduced in January by both Republican Senate Majority Leader Chase Blasi, R-Andale, and Democrat Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa.
Why was it so easy?
“I think it’s because you’re seeing around the country, there’s so much evidence now in other states of how much more conducive for learning the classroom environment is,” Masterson says.
The bill, which becomes law in time for school this fall, requires school districts to implement “bell-to-bell” bans on cell phones, smart watches and such in public as well as state-accredited private schools.
“Phone-free schools give students space to think, build authentic human relationships, and protect student mental health from constant digital pressure,” Blasi said in a joint press release in January. “The longer phones stay in classrooms, the harder it becomes to undo the damage.”
“Studies show,” Sykes added, “that classrooms without phones have more engaged students leading to face-to-face conversations, stronger peer relationships, safer school environments and better academic outcomes. Kansas has world class teachers and world class schools and we need to keep it that way and this legislation helps us do that.”
As far back as 2015, Education Week reported at the time, a study by the London School of Economics and Political Science, compared “test scores of 16-year-olds in four British cities before and after schools instituted cellphone bans … found that test scores rose following the implementation of the bans, with the overall effect of the ban being equal to adding an hour of instructional time every week, or about five days each year.
“The effect was especially strong for low-achieving and at-risk students.”
