Category: Opinions

The Kansas Legislature convened last week for a special session, after the Kansas Supreme Court issued a ruling that the state was not funding all schools in Kansas equally.

The session lasted only two days, and ended when a bipartisan compromise passed late Friday. While the bill is not perfect, it is a step in the right direction, and most importantly – allocates $38 million in new money and prevents our schools from closing.

Democrats led the effort

A plan to resolve the school finance crisis surrounding equity passed the House of Representatives on a vote of 116-6 and the Senate on a vote of 38-1 late Friday evening. All Democrats voted in favor of the bill.

A special session was needed because the governor and his GOP allies in the legislature did not appropriately address the equity issue during the regular session.

Democrats were committed to working to find a fair solution that would not harm our schools. We were the first to call for a special session and the first to release a school finance plan, which provided a blueprint for the bill that passed.

Initially, the GOP leadership in the House and Senate proposed a bill that would actually cut classroom funding before providing additional funds to schools. Such a plan would have done more harm than good and most likely would not have been approved by the court.

The plan that did pass increased funding for our schools by $38 million and used the following funding sources:

Funding Source Amount
Virtual School Funding $2.8 million
Extraordinary Needs Fund $7.2 million
TANF Idle Funds $4.1 million
Kansas Bioscience Authority $13 million
Tobacco Settlement Funds $16 million
Total $38 million

1. Freeze virtual school funding: Will hold the funding for virtual schools steady for the current year and not increase them as was already approved. This proposal uses $2.8 million.

2. Extraordinary Needs Fund: Will use $7.2 million from the Extraordinary Needs Fund that was established within the Block Grant bill in 2014. Plus, an additional $5 million will be moved to the Extraordinary Needs Fund from a Department of Motor Vehicles Modernization Fund.

3. TANF idle funds: Will use $4.1 million from unused TANF funds. TANF typically funds programs meant to help needy families achieve self-sufficiency. The bill utilizes existing unused funds and does not cut any existing programs.

4. Sale of the Kansas Bioscience Authority: Will use up to $13 million from the proceeds of the sale of the Kansas Bioscience Authority that are in excess of $25 million. The Bioscience Authority is a former quasi state agency that was already scheduled to be sold off.

5. Unused tobacco settlement funds: In the 1990s, Kansas joined several other states in filing a lawsuit against tobacco companies claiming tobacco was a health risk that increased health care costs for the states. Due to a settlement of that lawsuit, Kansas receives annual payments from the tobacco companies. Typically, these funds are used to finance children programs. Due to a veto by Gov. Brownback, up to $16 million was not being used on these programs and was idle.

Thankfully as a result of this special session our schools will open this fall. I am proud of my Democratic colleagues for standing together with Kansas students, teachers, schools, and administrators to find a solution that puts more money into education. Moving forward, I will continue fighting for adequate and equitable funding for our schools.

Keep in touch
It is a special honor to serve as your state representative. I value and need your input on issues facing state government. Please feel free to contact me with your comments and questions. You can reach me at 913-626-0404 or by email at [email protected].

Legislature in special session today to address school finance

The Legislature is back in Topeka today for a special session to address school finance. As we discussed in prior weeks, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled in May that the state was not providing school funding in an equitable manner and gave the Legislature until June 30th to solve the problem. Since the Legislature did not address the ruling on sine die, Democrats started a petition requesting the governor to call a special session – which he finally did on June 7th.

Need for special session
In 2010, after the state severely reduced the level of funding for our public schools, 46 school districts filed a lawsuit against the state. They alleged the state was not fulfilling its constitutional duty to adequately fund public schools and to do so in an equitable manner.

The issue is that some school districts reside in wealthy areas and are able to raise large amounts of funds for their schools through local property taxes, whereas other districts are not. This inequity is what the court has charged the legislature to address.

The Supreme Court first ruled on the equity requirement in February of this year, when it stated the state was not distributing funding equitably. The constitutional standard the court is holding the state to is this: all school districts are to have a reasonably equal access to a substantially similar educational opportunity through similar tax efforts. Initially, the court gave the Legislature until June 1st to solve the problem.

The Legislature convened in January and passed a bill that did not appropriate any new funds and merely moved existing funds around. In May, the Supreme Court ruled the bill did not pass constitutional muster and extended the deadline to June 30th to solve the problem.

Democratic proposal
It is widely believed that if the Legislature would appropriate an additional $38 million using the old school finance formula, (which the court has ruled is constitutional) the court would find that to be constitutional and the equity portion of the case would be dismissed.

On June 17, House Democratic Leader Tom Burroughs and Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley released a plan that would appropriate the additional $38 million and do so using existing funds.
The proposal would use the following funds:

• Freeze Virtual School Funding: Would hold the funding for virtual schools steady for the current year and not increase them as was already approved. This proposal takes $7.3 million.
• Extraordinary Need Fund: Would take $15.2 million from the Extraordinary Needs Fund that was established within the Block Grant bill in 2014
• Tax Credit for Private Schools: Would take $750,000 from a scholarship tax credit program. This program currently permits private companies to provide scholarships to private schools and receive a tax credit from the state. The $750,000 is the amount the state has currently provided in tax credits under the program. The proposal is to also repeal the tax credit program entirely.
• Job Creation Fund: Would take $13 million from the Job Creation Fund within the Department of Commerce. At this point the Department has only utilized roughly $60,000 from the account.
• TANF Idle Funds: Would take $3 million from unused TANF funds. The proposal is using existing unused funds and does not cut any existing programs.

Democrats believe the Legislature should address this issue immediately and ensure our schools are appropriately and constitutionally funded. We are here to do a single job during this special session and that is to ensure our schools are able to open this August and are fully funded.

I hope my colleagues in the Legislature understand what is at stake during this special session and pass a bill that actually addresses the issue. It is time to come together and solve the problem and playing politics with our children’s education.

Keep in touch
It is an honor to serve as your state representative. I value and need your input on the various issues facing state government. Please feel free to contact me with your comments and questions. My office address is Room 173-W, 300 SW 10th, Topeka, KS 66612. You can reach me at 785-296-7371 or call the legislative hotline at 1-800-432-3924 to leave a message for me. Additionally, you can email me [email protected]. You can also follow the legislative session online at www.kslegislature.org.

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Opinion column
by Murrel Bland

U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-3rd Dist., said he is proud of two pieces of federal legislation he is supporting that are moving ahead. One would require a court-ordered search warrant before government could access an individual’s cell phone records. The other would require a cell phone company to cooperate with law enforcement officials in a search for a person who has been abducted.

The congressman spoke at the Congressional Forum Friday, June 17, at The Venue at Willow Creek in Kansas City, Kan. The forum is a committee of the Kansas City, Kansas, Area Chamber of Commerce.

The issue concerning the government’s authority to obtain information from cell phone records came to a head when federal officials were seeking information from the cell phone records of those who killed several persons late last year in San Bernardino, Calif.

The proposed law concerning a “ping” locator has a local connection. Kelsey Ann Smith of Overland Park was abducted in 2007 near Oak Park Mall and taken to a wooded area near Longview Lake in Missouri where she was raped and killed.

“Kelsey’s Law” allows a cell phone company to ping a cell phone if law enforcement authorities believe a person may be in danger.

Rep. Yoder commented briefly about the importance to protect the country from “lone wolf” terrorists such as Omar Mateen who shot and killed 49 persons Sunday, June 12, at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla.

There is a continuing debate in Congress about gun control, usually along partisan lines. Democrats argue for stricter gun control laws, particularly when it comes to background checks. Many Republicans argue for gun rights, citing the protection assured in the Second Amendment.

Rep. Yoder said that there are some 800,000 persons on the federal government’s terrorist watch list. The FBI is restricted, based on a person’s civil rights, as to what it can ask and do. The government also maintains a “no-fly” list. Some have argued that people on these lists should not be able to buy guns.

In Mateen’s case, according to an article in Wired.Com, investigators surveilled him and arranged a meeting with a confidential informant. Apparently it was determined that Mateen was not a danger. Lawmakers want to determine why Mateen was taken off the watch list.

Rep. Yoder said it will be important to look at any proposed legislation in this area very carefully.

Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is the executive director of Business West.