Category: Opinions

It is an honor to represent District 6 in the Kansas Senate. If I can be of service to you or anyone you know, please call my office at 785-296-7375, or email me at [email protected]

It was a busy week at the Capitol, here are some highlights.-

In this issue:
• Session reaches midway point
• Education issues heat up
o Criminalizing teachers
o Fingerprinting teachers
o Common Core
o Parents as Teachers funding
o Teachers’ bargaining rights
• KPERS bond
• KPERS cost of living increase
• Kobach power to prosecute
• Changes to local elections approved
• Mental health drug bill defeated
• Disclosure of court applicants
• Contact with wild animals
• Faster disaster relief
• Kansas Highway Patrol short staffed
• Newsworthy Notes

Session reaches midway point

Friday marked the “turnaround” deadline for the Kansas Legislature, which means the session is halfway over. Except for in a few select committees, committee work ended on Wednesday and focus turned to the Senate floor as bills were debated and voted on. The Senate has now passed 79 bills, which the House will now review, debate, and possibly amend. In addition to working on the House bills coming over, the remainder of the session will be concentrated on the budget and tax policy.

It is important to note that at this point in the session we still have not seen legislation introduced that addresses how a block grant system for school funding would work or anything related to addressing the state’s revenue shortfall. Instead, we’ve spent our time discussing social issues, changing elections, and making teachers’ jobs more difficult.

Education issues heat up
It has become increasingly clear that this session includes a number of pieces of legislation that are direct attack on education and educators. This week, the Kansas Legislature spent time working on the following bills:

• Criminalizing teachers – On a vote of 26-14 in the Senate, a bill that would criminalize teachers for distributing materials deemed by an “average adult person” as “harmful to minors.” Senate Bill 56 is a solution looking for a problem. Removing the affirmative defense from K-12 educators is a thinly veiled method of attacking any materials which are perceived to be “harmful” to minors. Kansas schools already have in place reasonable safeguards to protect minors from exposure to inappropriate or harmful material. This bill infringes on the local control of school curriculum and teaching standards. Threatening teachers and school librarians with a class B nonperson misdemeanor is criminalizing education professionals for doing their job. I voted no on this bill.

• Fingerprinting teachers – On a vote of 29-10, the Senate also passed a bill that requires teachers to be fingerprinted every five years for background checks before receiving or renewing their license. Senate Bill 70 is entirely unnecessary. No other profession in the state is required to follow this practice. Additionally, the Kansas State Board of Education already has the authority to revoke, suspend, or censure the license of anyone convicted of any felony. Since 1996, there is no evidence that the board has not taken action to revoke or deny a license to a teacher or administrator convicted of offenses outlined in current statute. It is time for the Kansas Legislature to stop treating teachers as though they are guilty until proven innocent. I voted against it.

• Common Core – The House held a hearing this week on House Bill 2292, which seeks to repeal Common Core Standards and revert back to the standards as they were in 2010, erasing five years of educational progress. The bill will also prohibit the use of any materials that are based on or make reference to the Common Core Standards. This means school districts would be forced to purchase all brand new instructional materials during a time when districts are already facing financial uncertainties. This bill would also be detrimental to Kansas students because it would prohibit districts from offering Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes. Plus, the ACT and SAT have now been adjusted to accommodate Common Core Standards. I do not support the repeal of the standards.

• Parents as Teachers funding – On Thursday, March 5, the House Social Services Budget Committee is scheduled to hear a measure that would eliminate the state’s $7.2 million contribution to the Parents as Teachers program. This is not an actual piece of legislation, but rather a proposal to cut a line item in the budget. So, this would be included in the budget bill.

The early childhood program offers services to all families from before a child is born until they are three years old. Eliminating the state’s contribution would cut more than half of the program’s $12.4 million budget, and many believe would end the program. Early childhood education is critical to a child’s lifelong development. Cutting funding from the program would adversely affect Kansas’ poorest citizens who have already felt the consequences of cuts to social services and education by the Brownback Administration. The Legislature says they value families, but yet want to cut programs that help first-time parents learn age appropriate parenting skills.

• Teachers’ bargaining rights – This week the House passed a bill that would protect teachers’ contract negotiating rights. Currently, the process allowed an unlimited number of issues to be discussed by school boards and teachers’ unions. House Bill 2326 originally intended to completely take that process down to just salary and work hours. However, the House amended it to a process that allows each party to bring five issues up for discussion during negotiations, in addition to salary and work hours. The bill now reflects a compromise that was reached by representatives on behalf of both groups in January. I support the compromise.

Alternatively, the Senate debated a Senate Bill 136, which started out as the compromise process and was amended in committee to include only salary and work hours in negotiations. The Senate amended it to include a compromise of the process of three items for each group to negotiate. The bill passed unanimously.

KPERS bond

On a vote of 21-17 this week the Senate passed a bill (Senate Bill 168) that would authorize the use of $1 billion in bonds to extend the amortization period of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System by 10 years so KPERS won’t be fully funded until 2043. The governor proposed this as a way to provide some savings in the current fiscal year, but the reality is this would make it more expensive to make the system solvent. It would cost more than $3 billion. In other words, it will cost the state billions of dollars in the long term in order to save millions in the short term.

Also, recall that with the governor’s first allotment and with the passage of the 2015 budget adjustments, KPERS has already been reduced by $58 million, and public employees’ contribution rates increased while the employer’s rate stayed the same. The people who serve Kansas on a daily basis – teachers, law enforcement, firefighters – are now paying more and will continue to pay more.

I voted against this bill and will continue to oppose changes to KPERS.

KPERS cost-of-living increase

The House Pensions Committee heard testimony this week on a bill that would provide a cost of living increase to public employee retirees. However, House Bill 2250 did not make it out of committee before the turnaround deadline. House leaders also chose not to bless the bill, which means it is considered “dead” for the session unless it is offered as an amendment to another bill that comes to either chamber’s floor.

Kobach power to prosecute
The Senate approved Senate Bill 34 this week, which gives the Secretary of State the authority to prosecute voter fraud cases. The bill passed on a vote of 23-17. I voted against it because I believe it creates another taxpayer-funded lawyer to search for a problem that doesn’t exist. If there was a need for the Secretary of State to have prosecution powers, other states would adopt such laws. To date, no state in our nation has done so.

Changes to local elections approved

The Senate approved the bill that would move local elections from the spring to the fall, but keeps them in odd-numbered years and non-partisan, on a vote of 21-18. Senate Bill 171 requires schools to allow election commissioners to use their school buildings as voting sites and the district must schedule an in-service day for the Election Day. I amended the bill on the Senate floor to require election commissioners to give 365-day notice to school districts when requesting the use of buildings. I supported the amendment, but voted against the bill.

Mental health drug bill defeated

A bill in the Senate did fail this week on a vote of 15-25. Senate Bill 123 sought to interfere with the relationship between a patient and a doctor by allowing KanCare to regulate mental health patients’ access to antipsychotic medications. Proponents of the bill argued it would give patients more protection from over-prescription of drugs typically prescribed for mental illness. Opponents of the bill argued it would deprive patients of needed medication and could result in more being hospitalized or ending up in jail. They also argued the motivation behind the bill was not patient safety, but rather a savings for KanCare providers. I voted against the bill.

Disclosure of court applicants

Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka amended a bill on the Senate floor this week to require Gov. Brownback to publicly disclose the names of applicants for the state Court of Appeals 10 days before making an appointment. This statutorily changes the current procedure where the governor has refused to disclose applicants. Senate Bill 197 passed as amended on a vote of 35-4. I voted for it.

Contact with wild animals

A heated debate over whether the public should be able to come in full contact with dangerous animals weighing up to 10 pounds ended with a vote of 23-17. Senate Bill 97 would also allow “incidental contact” of wild animals up to 40 pounds, which means a trainer or handler could have an animal on a leash and the public could come in contact with the animal. This would only be allowed at a limited number of animal centers in the state. I voted in favor of this bill.

Faster disaster relief

In a small bit of good news, the Senate did pass unanimously a bill that would allow out-of-state utilities workers get to work sooner on repairing communities after disaster strikes. Senate Bill 109 does not require them to file for state and local taxes in a state of disaster or emergency. The businesses and employees would be required to pay transaction taxes and fees on purchases for use or consumption, unless otherwise exempted.

Kansas Highway Patrol, short-staffed

Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP) is supporting a bill that would offer incentives to their officers to stay past their eligible retirement date. House Bill 2288, which was debated by the House Pensions and Benefits Committee, will allow firefighters and police officers covered by the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System (KPERS) to defer their retirement three to five years.

Currently the Kansas Highway Patrol is operating with only 400 officers, leaving them 100 officers short. The Highway Patrol argued the program is critical to the immediate future of their force because over 50 troopers are eligible to retire this year. The strength of the KHP is at a nine year low, with 29 counties having no designated trooper and 34 counties assigned only one trooper. Some legislators have argued that simply deferring retirement would not significantly address retention issues because it does not investment money into salaries and benefits which many believe is the problem.