Month: September 2022

Parental rights fight in Kansas schools spawns book bans, scrutiny of LGBTQ students

Schmidt highlights legislation, which Kelly vetoed, in campaign for governor

by Rachel Mipro, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Lawmakers say remnants of a proposed parents’ bill of rights are impacting school districts, referencing several schools’ transgender student policies and recent attempts to remove books from curriculum.

Critics of the parents’ bill of rights say the proposal is unnecessarily restrictive.

Under the bill, which Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed in April, each public school district would implement an online portal where parents of K-12 students would be able to inspect a variety of lessons, syllabi, books, tests and magazines, among other learning tools. The parents could object to learning materials and block them from their child.

The GOP-controlled Legislature fell short of the two-thirds majority needed in both the Senate and House to override Kelly’s veto. Now, Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt promises to sign the bill within his first 100 days in office if he wins November’s gubernatorial election.

Sen. Molly Baumgardner, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said the legislation was about transparency and benefits school districts. As a former public school teacher, she said, the legislation fell in line with her former job responsibilities, such as distributing syllabi and informing parents on how grades would be determined.

Baumgardner said the legislation was based on feedback from parents and concerned community members after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Is it workable? Absolutely,” Baumgardner said. “Is it punitive? Absolutely not. There was no stick, no punishment. But what it did do is it set some guidelines, so that there would be consistency from school district to school district.”

The legislation was modeled on recommendations by the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., and mirrored packages introduced in multiple states.

Sen. Cindy Holscher, D-Overland Park, a vocal opponent of the bill, said many state senators were out of touch with how public education works. Out of the 40 current senators, only four have experience with their children attending public schools, she said.

Holscher said the bill was unnecessary and took attention away from real issues, such as the teacher shortage in the state. She said she believes the bill will come back in some form during the next legislative session.

“The fact of the matter is we have a super majority of extremists who have been working to defund our schools for many years, so it will come back,” Holscher said. “That’s always two things I always say about Topeka: Bad bills never die, and it can always get worse. It’ll come back.”

Holscher said public education would be threatened if Kelly is voted out of office.

“If we don’t retain her and there’s still a supermajority, the house has fallen off the cliff honestly, because the super majority of extremists, if they have their governor in power, will be able to knock away the foundation of our public schools. And that’s very concerning,” Holscher said.

In a Sept. 16 news release, Schmidt reiterated his commitment to passing the legislation.

“Laura Kelly and the teachers unions that bankroll her campaigns believe that they are in charge of schools,” Schmidt said. “They are not. Our public schools function at the highest level only when parents are deeply involved in their children’s education and when they work in tandem with a good teacher. That’s why today, I am calling on the Kansas Legislature, within the first 100 days I’m in office, to send me a Parents Bill of Rights.”

Kelly has repeatedly criticized the bill, including in her veto statement, in which she said she was committed to addressing parental concerns in a different way.

Rep. Stephanie Byers, D-Wichita, said the legislation would hurt education in the state in general, and would also target LGBTQ students because teachers would have an obligation to notify parents about their child’s pronouns and other preferences. Byers was an educator for almost 30 years and is the first transgender person elected to the Legislature.

“That helps kind of build that darkness around and continue to build that darkness that depression that builds up and they don’t get to live authentically,” Byers said. “They don’t get to feel what truth feels like, to be yourself. That creates other issues. The parents’ bill of rights puts an interesting burden on teachers and schools.”

Byers said Schmidt is using the legislation to gain support among his peers. Schmidt also opposes critical race theory and the “age-inappropriate gender or sexual identity content, discussions, or curriculums in the classroom,” as he said in a campaign website post.

“I think he’s pushing it so hard because he lacks direction for what his own platform should be,” Byers said. “And so he’s looking at who he perceives to be the leaders of the Republican Party in the state of Kansas. On education issues, it’s going to be Kristey Williams, it’s going to be Renee Erickson that he looks to and they’re going to be the ones that push this through in the respective committees.”

Sen. Erickson, R-Wichita, and Rep. Williams, R-Augusta, have supported the legislation, saying it would empower parents.

“Parents as their children’s first and most important teachers is a universally held belief,” Erickson said in Schmidt’s Sept. 16 news release. “That is the foundation for the Parents Bill of Rights. If school officials truly value transparency, they should embrace parental involvement in every aspect of their child’s education.”

Byers believes the bill would worsen book bans in the state. The Seaman school district voted this week to take “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” out of circulation, and the evaluation comes in the wake of other Kansas school book removals. Goddard Public Schools and Derby Public Schools both banned “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” in 2021.

Goddard removed more than two dozen books from the district’s school libraries in November 2021 before reversing the decision, and students in the North Kansas City School District campaigned to get novels dealing with sexuality and gender put back on the shelves.

“The bill of rights, if it were to pass, guarantees parents some sort of right of censorship,” Byers said.

Rep. Susan Estes, R-Wichita, said the legislation was a way to address parents’ feelings about Kelly closing schools for two months at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They watched their children suffer academic losses,” Estes said in Schmidt’s Sept. 16 news release. “They felt abandoned and voiceless. The Parents’ Bill of Rights acknowledges that parents are the primary decision maker in a child’s life and ensures they have a seat at the table and a full plate of information from which to make the best decisions for their child.”

Director of communications for the Kansas National Education Association, Marcus Baltzell, said the gubernatorial election reignited his and his fellow educator’s concerns about governmental overreach in education.

“What this is really about is about putting more pressure on educators to essentially sacrifice themselves on the altar of right wing extremism,” Baltzell said.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/09/30/parental-rights-fight-in-kansas-schools-spawns-book-bans-scrutiny-of-lgbtq-students/.

Forecast: Sunny, high near 76

Friday night temperatures will start in the mid-70s and then drop by 8 p.m. to the high 60s and by 10 p.m. to around 62, according to the National Weather Service. (National Weather Service graphic)
Wyandotte County is in an area of severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. It could result in elevated fire weather conditions next week or the week after. (National Weather Service graphic)

Today’s forecast from the National Weather Service includes sunny skies and a high near 76.

Mild temperatures and dry conditions continue today, through the weekend and into early next week, according to the weather service.

Drought conditions continue to worsen in the coming week or two, which might lead to fire weather concerns then, the weather service said. There is no rain in the forecast for the next seven days.

Tonight’s forecast will see temperatures in the 70s through 6 p.m., then dropping into the high 60s at 8 p.m., the weather service said. It will cool quickly after sunset. Winds will be out of the southwest and will decrease through the evening, according to the weather service.

Today, it will be sunny, with a high near 76 and a south southeast wind of 7 to 9 mph, the weather service said.

Tonight, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 49 and an east southeast wind of 3 to 5 mph, according to the weather service.

Saturday, it will be sunny, with a high near 77, the weather service said. A calm wind will become east 5 to 7 mph in the morning.

Saturday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 50 and an east wind around 5 mph becoming calm after midnight, according to the weather service.

Sunday, it will be sunny, with a high near 78, the weather service said. A calm wind will become east 5 to 7 mph in the morning.

Sunday night, it will be clear, with a low of 52, according to the weather service.

Monday, it will be sunny, with a high near 80, the weather service said.

Monday night, it will be partly cloudy, with a low of 53, according to the weather service.

Tuesday, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 81, the weather service said.

Tuesday night, it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 56, according to the weather service.

Wednesday, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 77, the weather service said.

Wednesday night, it will be partly cloudy, with a low of 52, according to the weather service.

Thursday, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 68, the weather service said.

UG names administrative judge

The Unified Government named a new municipal court administrative judge, Meaghan Shultz, on Thursday.

The Unified Government Commission held interviews with three candidates for the position, Judge Shultz, Judge Brandelyn Nichols-Brajkovic and attorney Joni Cole at Thursday night’s meeting. Then commissioners voted for their selection on paper ballots.

Because it was a 5-4 vote, and six votes were needed to pass it, Mayor Tyrone Garner was then asked to vote, and Shultz received six votes.

Judge Nichols-Brajkovic currently holds the administrative position, and that term is set to expire on Friday, Sept. 30.

The interviews started around 10:30 p.m. Thursday during the UG meeting.

Misty Brown, UG chief legal counsel, said the four-year administrative judge term runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2026. She said the contract could have been renewed, and Mayor Garner chose to reopen the process.

A judicial nominating committee with Commissioners Tom Burroughs, Mike Kane and Angela Markley was convened, Brown said. The UG received eight applications after the position was posted, she added.

Shultz was named a municipal court judge in March 2019. Prior to that, she was a municipal prosecutor for the UG.

Judge Nichols-Brajkovic has been the administrative judge since March 2019. She has been a municipal court judge since 2013.

Now there is another opening on the municipal court, according to Brown. It is Shultz’s unexpired term.

The UG could redo the process to fill the remaining two years in Shultz’s contract, she said. They can either use the same applicant pool or form a new nominating commission, she said.

Brown said municipal court has a list of pro tem judges that they can rotate until they fill the open position on municipal court.

Shultz has a law degree from the University of Kansas School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in justice systems and psychology from Truman State University.

Foster care, church zoning item

The UG Commission spent hours listening to the proponents and opponents of a proposal to put a church and seven foster care homes on property that was formerly Manion’s auction house at 4411 N. 67th St.

The project had been recommended for denial by the City Planning Commission earlier because of the narrowness of the street, the lack of infrastructure and the character of the neighborhood. The UG Commission’s decision Thursday was to uphold that denial. The UG planning staff had recommended approval of the project.

According to UG officials, the applicant did not really need a zoning change to build the homes or the church, but could go ahead with the project as long as they get the plats approved. There were also zoning changes involved with splitting the property.

Those who were for the project were residents of Johnson and Leavenworth counties, while those who were against it were residents of Kansas City, Kansas. A protest petition from the neighbors was ruled invalid, according to UG planning staff, because it covered 18 percent of the adjacent land area, not 20 percent.

In other action, the UG Commission passed a master plan amendment for the 505 Central Ave. apartment building, along with a resolution of intent to issue $25 million in industrial revenue bonds for the apartment project. There was one resident who was opposed. The project has received a number of approvals previously.

The UG Commission also approved reassigning a resolution of intent to issue industrial revenue bonds for the Village West Apartments III, which has had a change in the ownership structure. It is the same as had previously been approved, according to UG officials.

Thursday was the last meeting for UG Economic Development Director Katharine Carttar, who has served in the position about four and a half years. She was one of three department heads who announced resignations recently. The others were Kathleen von Achen, chief financial officer; and Rob Richardson, former planning director and current development coordination and customer service success director.

Mayor Garner and UG commissioners thanked Carttar, who is married to Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas, for her service. Garner said everyone benefited from her being there.

Bridgette Cobbins, assistant county administrator, said Carttar had been nothing but professional during her tenure.

Commissioner Christian Ramirez thanked her for helping to explain economic development concepts when he was new on the commission. Commissioner Melissa Bynum complimented Carttar’s professionalism and said she was always “super responsive.” Commissioner Brian McKiernan said, “You’re leaving us better than you found us and for that we really appreciate you.”