Rachel Mipro, Kansas Reflector

Jim Denning, in an interview for the Kansas Oral History Project, said Archbishop Joseph Naumann “basically stopped Medicaid expansion.”

“So if you were an opponent of Medicaid expansion, then he’s your guy. If you were a proponent, you’re mad at him,” Denning said. “He single-handedly torpedoed the bill because he said, ‘You can’t vote for Medicaid expansion until the abortion amendment passes with the public.’ So he killed it. It never came out of committee.”

A spokesperson for the Kansas Catholic Church and leader of a Medicaid expansion advocacy group disputed comments made by Denning about the fate of Medicaid expansion in 2019 and 2020, when Denning controlled the Senate’s legislative calendar.

Alan Conroy, executive director of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, conducted the interview with Denning on April 13. The Kansas Oral History Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving state history. The project released several new interviews with lawmakers as part of a series on the Statehouse.

Denning, an Overland Park Republican, said he objected to an earlier Medicaid plan passed by the House in 2019 because it contained “lousy” financial policy. Then-Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, needed 24 votes to force a vote on the bill over his objections.

“He ended up getting 23,” Denning said. “The reason why he only got 23 was I was majority leader.”

Denning said Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly would come to his office, attempting to convince him to move forward with this Medicaid expansion plan.

“She was really mad at me,” Denning said. “I think she cracked the door one time when she slammed it.”

Kelly spokeswoman Brianna Johnson said this account was not accurate.

“Gov. Kelly doesn’t slam doors,” Johnson said. “What the former Senate majority leader got right, however, is that the governor is relentless in her pursuit of Medicaid expansion and will meet Republican leaders whenever and wherever — including in their own offices — to figure out how to pass legislation supported by nearly 80% of Kansans.”

Denning said he told concerned lawmakers in 2019 that he would bring an alternative forward in the 2020 session.

“I worked all summer putting the bill together,” Denning said. “I had about 2,000 hours. I had worked on it for many years. So the bill, it ended up being Senate Bill 252. It had 33 sections. Only 5% of the bill was Medicaid; 95% of the bill was health care reform on the commercial side. It was all the things that I wanted over 30 years of knowing what needed to be fixed.”

Denning worked out the bipartisan deal with Kelly. But Republicans, outraged by a Kansas Supreme Court ruling that established a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy, were focused on placing a constitutional amendment on abortion before voters.

Senate President Susan Wagle and anti-abortion forces attempted to use the Medicaid expansion deal as leverage to secure Senate approval of the constitutional amendment, according to Denning.

Chuck Weber, executive director of the Kansas Catholic Conference, said Denning was wrong to blame Naumann. But Weber also said the church wanted the inclusion of the amendment as a provision of its support for Medicaid expansion.

“Senator Denning’s statement that the Archbishop Naumann was single-handedly responsible for torpedoing Medicaid Expansion is simply not accurate,” Weber said. “The public record is clear that the Kansas Catholic Conference, in January at the beginning of the 2020 legislative session, testified in support of Medicaid expansion with the provisos that the legislation included conscious protections for health care workers and the people of Kansas were provided the opportunity to vote on the Value Them Both amendment.”

Republicans gained a supermajority advantage in both the House and Senate in the November 2020 elections. The Legislature approved the constitutional amendment ballot question in 2021, with a provision to place it before voters in the August 2022 primary election. Kansans rejected the amendment by an 18-point margin.

Meanwhile, Democrats in both chambers have been unsuccessful in attempts to insert Medicaid expansion proposals into various bills.

April Holman, executive director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, said the failure to expand Medicaid has had serious consequences over the years.

“We have seen poll after poll showing that Kansans overwhelmingly think that we should expand, and yet when the issue gets to the Statehouse, there is an absolute brick wall that we run into,” Holman said. “We can’t get a hearing. We can’t get bills that are moved out of committee. We can’t get a clean vote on expansion. And it seems very disconnected from the will of the people and very disconnected from the intention of the democratic process.”

Holman said Denning had the opportunity to expand Medicaid and didn’t take it.

“I think that it’s really ironic, because he had the opportunity to be the hero on this issue,” Holman said. “And if he had worked the bill or allowed it to be worked or voted on in 2019, we would have so many people across the state of Kansas who would be healthier today as a result.”

During the Oral History Project interview, Denning said he wasn’t optimistic about the future of Medicaid expansion absent a significant shakeup to the Legislature.

“All that work was all down the drain,” Denning said. “It may never come back unless the Legislature changes like it did in 2016. But I don’t think anybody would take the effort that I did to build Senate Bill 252. If it ever does happen, it won’t be robust like that. It was very comprehensive. It still stings a little bit.”

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

Bergquist, along with state Treasurer Steven Johnson and Wellington Republican Rep. Bill Rhiley, led prayers during the May 4 prayer ceremony, asking God for more religious influence in society at large.

DePue, who leads a Christian organization geared toward prayer in the Capitol, has been a quiet influence in the Statehouse for years. A spiritual adviser to former Gov. Sam Brownback, DuPue teaches Bible studies during the legislative session to senators and representatives. His organization hand delivers Bible study notes to all the Capitol offices, according to the organization’s website.

“It’s not religion so much. It’s faith,” DePue said in an interview following the May 4 Statehouse prayer event, which he helped to organize. “It’s hard to be on the front lines of the work, like in government. We just support them. We got their back. We just try to be a supportive environment for legislators and our administrators. We have people pray for them. We walk around and encourage them. No agenda, just to kind of shore them up and strengthen them.”

“For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever,” Bergquist sang, his voice rising and falling. “Amen.”

Bergquist’s performance was a repeat of an earlier one in which he sang “The Lord’s Prayer” to his fellow House lawmakers on April 6, one of the last days of the regular 2023 legislative session. Lawmakers that day proceeded to vote on a bill that would allow parents to pull their children from classes that didn’t align with their moral or religious beliefs, and a bill separating students by sex assigned at birth for overnight school field trips.

Kansas Reflector is examining the influence of religious beliefs on state government through a series of stories.

While Bergquist’s a cappella prayer was new, the dedication to religion in the Statehouse was not. The House and Senate open each daily legislative session with a prayer to God as lawmakers seek spiritual guidance before turning their attention to policymaking.

A quiet room on the second floor of the Statehouse has been set aside as a meditation space for lawmakers. Outfitted with Bibles, one tattered copy of the Holy Qur’an and scattered religious pamphlets, literature stacked in the room’s bookshelves bear titles such as “God’s Intervention,” and “Who is Jesus?” A framed poster reading “In God We Trust” sits near a canister of blessed soil ready to be contemplated by lawmakers and other Capitol visitors.

The daily prayers are published in the front pages of Senate and House journals, which record lawmakers actions throughout the session. On April 5, the day before Bergquist’s song, the House prayer, delivered by the Rev. Justin Panzer, asked God to direct lawmakers in doing His work.

“Equip them to use the positions entrusted to them to bring Your honor and glory,” the prayer read. “Lead them to protect life from conception to natural death. Guide them to make decisions that will benefit all citizens of this nation. In all matters of deliberation, give them open ears and discerning and understanding hearts.”

Bergquist, a Park City Republican, is just one of several Kansas lawmakers whose public service has been shaped by Christian beliefs and religious views.

During a legislative debate in March, Rep. Rebecca Schmoe, an Ottawa Republican, asserted the concealed carry of a firearm is among “our natural, God-given rights.”

Sen. Mark Steffen, a Hutchinson Republican, offered to convert a Muslim woman and a news reporter when asked in March how he represented his non-Christian constituents.

“I care about you and God loves you. It’s not complicated. Our happiness, our contentment, our eternal life is thru Christ our Savior,” Steffen wrote in an April 27 Facebook post following news stories about his offer, which he had lied about.

DePue said Steffen had good intentions.

“Steffen’s a good guy, one of our favorite senators,” DePue said. “He’s in his first term, and he’s learning how the system works. He means well — three cheers for Mark Steffen.”

Behind closed doors at Riverside Baptist Church in Hutchinson, Steffen and other Republicans strategized ways of evangelizing Kansans. A secret audio recording of their March 2 meeting was shared with Kansas Reflector.

Reno County Commissioner John Whitesel, Reno County GOP chairman Ryan Patton, Rep. Mike Murphy and Ellis County GOP chairman Adam Peters emphasized the importance of spreading Christianity. Peters said more of his fellow Christian Republicans needed to run for government positions to counteract liberal influence and pass bills such as parental rights legislation as a first step toward “healing” the country.

“We don’t control the media,” Peters said. “We don’t control Hollywood. Big corporations, big tech, academic institutions, most government bureaucracies, most of those are led by people who are hostile to us. What we do tend to control are state legislatures. So I believe we need to start there. Now to be clear, legislative action is no cure-all. Our society is severely injured, and it’s gonna take decades to heal the damage, but the first thing to do is to stop the bleeding.”

Rabbi Moti Rieber, executive director of Kansas Interfaith Action, said topics such as transgender student athlete bans, religious education exemptions, voucher programs for private schools and other bills debated during this year’s legislative session are evidence of harmful religious beliefs.

“This session, the conversation’s completely stymied, or controlled. The only things that come up are the priorities or the obsessions of leadership or of this right-wing group,” Rieber said. “This is something that we need to push back on because we don’t believe that this kind of understanding of white Christian nationalism should be the way the country’s governed, or the lens through which we see important issues.”

Rieber said most Kansans are moderates who don’t welcome the intermingling of politics and religion.

“There’s a very black or white, good or evil kind of framing that they have,” Rieber said. “They think that God wants them to do x and y, and if it’s not done, then they’ve failed God. And where does that leave anyone who doesn’t believe the way they do?”

In an interview for this series, Rep. Tobias Schlingensiepen, a Topeka Democrat and pastor, questioned how a radical minority had gained such a large footing in state politics.

“The question is: Are you on God’s side?” Schlingensiepen said. “Not the casual assumption that God is on your side. This is a very dangerous assumption, and that God is almost invariably an idol. Idolatry is when you essentially divinize your own personal desires.”

Schlingensiepen, a first-term legislator, thought about the way faith should guide a politician as he navigates decisions in the often-hectic Legislature.

“I like the mess. It’s where I want to be … and I think it is a fantastic challenge to what I believe as a Christian and as a pastor,” Schlingensiepen said. “And I think what we need most in this time is courage and education and honesty to the greatest extent possible. And the only places where those get challenged is where they’re under fire. I’m kind of curious to see how I respond to all these challenges.“

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

TOPEKA — A Republican senator told a Muslim woman that he would be happy to convert her to Christianity when she asked him how he planned to fairly represent all his constituents, not just those who shared his religion.

Hutchinson Republican Sen. Mark Steffen was meeting with a group of young Kansans from Wichita and Hutchinson in his office when he made the statement March 16.

Rija Nazir, a 22-year-old recent Wichita State University graduate and campaign organizer with Loud Light, said she wanted to give Steffen a chance to explain his perspective when she asked the question, after seeing a large Bible on his desk and knowing his strong religious views.

“I obviously knew a little bit of background about him, but I didn’t want to just write him off just yet,” Nazir said. “I wanted to have a chance to let him speak for himself.”

Nazir told Steffen she was Muslim and asked him how he approached non-Christian constituents.

“I would be happy to try and convert you,” Steffen said in response, while laughing.

Nazir said she was worried that his immediate response to her question was to dismiss her religion.

“I already know that a lot of senators think that way,” Nazir said. “But it was still jarring to hear him say it without any hesitation. Usually I’m able to kind of lay off the situation and kind of be a little bit like, ‘OK, yeah,’ but in that situation, I was just kind of speechless.”

Kansas Reflector verified the conversation by listening to an audio recording from the meeting, but Steffen denied making the comment.

“That is not true,” Steffen said in an April 26 interview. “That is a false statement, 100%. That’s all I got to say.”

Rija Nazir participates in a March 6, 2023, rally for bodily autonomy at the Statehouse in Topeka. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Nazir said she had experienced Islamophobia and bigotry before, but she felt Steffen’s reaction was inappropriate, especially as a lawmaker.

“It still got to me, even though it’s not something that’s very new to me,” Nazir said. “Just to see someone spew that kind of hatred and not even backtrack or try to cover themselves up was very scary to see.”

Other meeting participants said Steffen didn’t retract his statement when informed that other people of different religions were also present, including Jewish and atheist attendees.

Jenna Dozier, a 22-year-old Jewish person and political science major at Wichita State, said she was concerned by Steffen’s comment.

“Being promised equal representation at the convenience of religious conversion to Christianity is extremely inappropriate for a state senator,” Dozier said. “In Kansas we believe in the first amendment that allows us to practice our religion of choice. Sen. Mark Steffen should be ashamed for his remarks said to Rija and I.”

After discussions with their families and faith leaders, Nazir and Dozier decided to come forward to ask Steffen to issue an apology and commit to respecting all faiths in an open letter to be published and released by Loud Light this week. In the letter, the two also ask Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, to denounce Steffen’s statement.

A spokesman for Masterson’s office didn’t respond to inquiries from Kansas Reflector for this story.

Rabbi Moti Rieber, executive director of Kansas Interfaith Action, said lawmakers needed to represent everyone fairly, regardless of religion.

“The idea that everyone is represented in our government — without regard to race or religion — is a core principle of our representative democracy,” Rieber said. “A senator serves everyone, not just those who share his religion. Sen. Steffen’s clear indication to these two young people that he respects non-Christian Kansans less is a repudiation of this basic civic concept, and requires (at least) an apology and a pledge to do better in the future.”

Steffen is known for his conservative Christian views. He mentioned his desire for “Godly” legislative results in a Wednesday Facebook post, at the start of the veto override session.

“The Kansas Senate is back in session. It’s time to override our wildly liberal governor. The well-being of our society is in the balance. Pray for wisdom and Godly results,” Steffen said.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

One lawmaker said Kobach was “getting his claws” into House bills with the end goal of expanding his influence.

Rep. Rui Xu, a Westwood Democrat, told his colleagues that they needed to take a stand against Kobach’s policy proposals, referencing Kobach’s attempts to implement increased scrutiny of undocumented people through a human smuggling bill.

“We have to stop letting him, who has a history and a career of attacking certain marginalized people, from dragging this body down,” Xu said during a April 6 House debate. “We do good work in this body, but he keeps getting his claws into our bills and making them much worse.”

Kobach, a former secretary of state who lost a 2020 race for U.S. Senate and the 2018 race for governor, replaced Attorney General Derek Schmidt in January.

Kobach was Kansas’s chief elections officer from 2011 until 2019. During that time, he raised his political profile by claiming without evidence that undocumented immigrants were registering to vote and casting illegal ballots. He implemented a citizen law that required residents to prove their citizenship before registering to vote.

After a five-year legal battle on the constitutionality of the law, the Kansas Attorney General’s Office had to pay $1.9 million in fees and expenses to the American Civil Liberties Union and other attorneys when the law was ruled unconstitutional, with no evidence to support his claims of widespread voter fraud. Kobach was ordered by a federal judge to take six hours of remedial law class after the trial.

Kobach has maintained a strong anti-immigration stance and has said he will work to secure the southern borders.

Human smuggling

Kansas lawmakers sent a bill on human smuggling to Gov. Laura Kelly’s office, rejecting proposed changes by Kobach to broaden the scope of the bill and define undocumented people as “aliens.”

Under the legislation, which passed the House 96-26 and the Senate 36-2, human smuggling would be defined as intentionally transporting, harboring, or concealing someone known to be in the U.S. illegally while benefiting from the transaction or receiving anything of value and knowing that the individual being smuggled is likely to be exploited for financial gain. The crime would be considered a severity level 5 felony, with an attached prison sentence of 2.5 to 10.5 years.

The bill also creates a definition for aggravated human smuggling, classifying the crime as a severity level 3 felony, punishable from 4.5 to 20.5 years in prison. Aggravated human smuggling would include threatening the smuggled person with a deadly weapon, harming the person being smuggled and sex trafficking of the smuggled person.

Bill critics say every day actions of undocumented people would be criminalized through the bill, and that Kansas courts would have to decide on whether the person being smuggled is in the country illegally. This decision is usually left to federal immigration courts, and is one that Kansas courts may not be equipped to take on.

Jennifer Roth, an appellate public defender and co-chairwoman of the Kansas State Board of Indigents’ Defense Services Legislative Committee, said immigration law should be left to federal officials in Feb. 15 testimony against the bill.

“Immigration law is a specialized practice area; there are special courts that handle federal immigration matters,” Roth said. “Yet HB 2350 would allow for severe criminal punishment based on the premise that a person should have known that someone was here ‘illegally’ under federal law.”

Roth gave a list of situations in which people may be charged with felonies under the legislation. The list includes workers at a homeless shelter who provide aid to those in need, school bus drivers taking children to school and Uber or Lyft drivers giving someone a ride, among others.

The original bill passed the House 117-4 and was amended in a Senate committee following Kobach’s introduction of an amendment. His changes defined human smuggling as “intentionally moving, concealing, harboring or shielding from detection an alien with knowledge or reckless disregard of the fact that such alien has come to, entered or remains in the United States in violation of the law in exchange for anything of value.”

Under this definition which left a much wider scope for prosecution, landlords, hotel owners and others could theoretically be charged with human smuggling, along with employers giving their employees rides or providing transportation.

Kobach denied that the amendment would change the scope of the bill, but acknowledged that courts could use this sort of argument during a March 15 bill hearing.

“You could make it,” Kobach said. “But there’s a good chance you’d lose that argument in satisfying that element of the crime.”

During the bill hearing, Kobach emphasized the necessity for the use of the word “alien” to mimic federal immigration law.

”I know the term alien has become politically incorrect over the last 10 years or so, and in political discourse people would like to say individual, but in defending this in court, if we use the terms of federal law, we’ll be on much stronger footing,” Kobach said.

The amended bill was rejected in the House on both sides of the aisle during the April 6 bill discussion. Rep John Alcala, a Topeka Democrat, said he felt the word “alien” targeted a specific group of people.

“I don’t know too many extraterrestrials or too many green people. But I know a lot of brown people that I think this bill targets,” Acala said. “If we want to fix this problem, it goes back to the history and the resume of our attorney general. He’s cost this state a lot of money with lawsuits that were never won.”

In a Wednesday interview, Kobach said the Uber scenario was “highly unlikely.” He said he didn’t watch the House debates, but felt the amendment wasn’t a big change.

“It didn’t change what the bill does,” Kobach said. “It didn’t change the scope of it. I think it might have modestly changed what aggravated human smuggling is a tiny, tiny bit, but basically, the bill did the same thing. It was just different wording.”

Following House debate, lawmakers threw out the amendments.

Other influences

Acala was one of several Democratic lawmakers who pointed to the bill as the latest example of Kobach’s attempts to influence the Legislature.

Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat, said Kobach’s amendment was an excuse for him to expand his authority.

“This is an opportunity for our present attorney general to commence prosecution,” Carmichael said during the April 6 bill hearing. “That’s what it is about. It’s about giving our present attorney general the power to go on an alien hunt.”

Carmichael mentioned a crime bill pushed by Kobach. The legislation grants the attorney general concurrent authority with a county or district attorney to prosecute any crimes involving criminal conduct occurring in two or more counties.

Current Kansas law limits the attorney general to prosecuting cases in which the offender was an officer or employee of a city or county.

Kobach said this expansion of power was needed because of widespread organized retail crime, in which criminals were stealing shopping carts full of goods from big-box stores in multiple counties.

It is not clear how much Kansas is affected by organized retail crime.

Carmichael referenced the prosecutorial portion of the retail bill — which has since been folded into fentanyl-related legislation — as another example of Kobach trying to expand his authority.

“I predicted the attorney general will be back and he will use this power to broaden his original jurisdiction to prosecute supposed crime despite the wishes of local prosecutors who are elected by the people in their counties,” Carmichael said. “Here’s an example of it coming to fruition.”

The fentanyl legislation, Senate Bill 174, would decriminalize fentanyl testing strips, as well as other drug testing strips and increase criminal penalties for manufacturing and distributing fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances. The Legislature adjourned before passing the package into law, but a vote is expected when lawmakers return later this month.

Another portion of the bill would make fleeing a law enforcement officer a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on what crime the fleeing person has been charged with, among other provisions. If enacted, the wide-ranging legislation gives the attorney general authority to prosecute alleged crimes that occurred in two or more counties.

Rep. Boog Highberger, a Lawrence Democrat, spoke against the bill during the March 29 vote.

“The vast and unprecedented expansion of the attorney general’s criminal prosecution authority contained in this package goes far beyond what is needed to address the problem it is purportedly intending to address and I think it will have negative consequences in the future,” Highberger said.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

TOPEKA — Senate President Ty Masterson and Rep. Kristey Williams delivered a series of inaccurate statements on gun violence, public school cuts and special education funding during an hourlong public forum Saturday in Augusta.

The forum took place a day after the Senate rejected legislation crafted by Williams to create a private school voucher program. Lawmakers adjourned for spring break in the early morning hours of April 7.

Williams, an Augusta Republican, and Masterson, an Andover Republican, complained about public school performance and made their case for using taxpayer funds to incentivize attendance at unregulated private schools.

In an interview, Liz Meitl, a public school teacher in Kansas City, Kansas, said Masterson and Williams were misrepresenting K-12 pubic education information.

“What they’re doing is creating circumstances in which the Kansas public can’t have conversations about real change or real improvement,” Meitl said. “They’re gaslighting us as a whole state.”

School funding cuts

Masterson falsely claimed there was no funding cut to public schools under former Gov. Sam Brownback, even though the state repeatedly slashed public school funding between 2008 and 2016, years when Masterson was in the Legislature.

“That’s the biggest lie out there in the ether, is that there was this big cut in schools,” Masterson said. “The only governor that actually hard cut schools — which was less-money-in-subsequent-years, I-got-less-than-I-did-before cut definition — the only governor that cut schools was Mark Parkinson.”

Parkinson, a Democrat, executed several rounds of school budget cuts in response to the 2008 recession, leading schools to file a lawsuit in 2010, the year Brownback was elected. The Legislature again lowered the amount of money the state provides public schools after Brownback took office in 2011.

As the state lost a series of legal challenges for underfunding schools, the Legislature replaced a formula that dated to 1992 with a two-year block grant to school districts. The Kansas Supreme Court determined the grants, which lowered K-12 school funding and eliminated extra aid for students in poverty, were unconstitutional.

Legislators and lobbyists who propose spending less on public schools sometimes conflate the distinction between state aid, which pays for teacher salaries and classroom expenses, with local bond projects and federal aid for food and transportation.

“K-12 never got less money. And that’s just math,” Masterson said.

Senate and House lawmakers reached a deal last week to cut $76.3 million in base state aid from public school funding, but neither chamber voted on the proposal before adjourning.

The funding bill was criticized because of the cuts, and also because it was a massive piece of legislation that blended state funding for K-12 education with provisions from nine other bills, including a form of parental rights legislation and an extension of the statewide mill levy that generates revenue for public schools.

Special education funding

Williams told the crowd that special education was overfunded in some districts, even though the state has underfunded special education for years.

The Kansas Association of School Boards estimates the state is about $160 million short of the special education funding required by state law.

During this year’s session, Williams attempted to combine funding to close part of the gap on special education with an unpopular private school voucher program. The proposal narrowly passed the House and was defeated in the Senate before lawmakers adjourned last week.

“There’s 149 school districts out of 286 that are exceeding the excess cost,” Williams said. “Some are up to 300% and some are 60%. And we’ve got to equalize that.”

Meitl said Williams was misrepresenting the situation because costs are determined by an individual’s needs. Some districts, Meitl said, have higher numbers of students with specific needs, and the special education costs reflect varying needs across districts.

“That’s like budget jargon,” Meitl said. “If humans were numbers, then sure, we could do that. But we’re not. Humans are variable. And needs are different and needs present out of nowhere.”

Under Kansas law, the state is supposed to provide 92% of the extra costs of special education, but the Legislature hasn’t met this requirement since 2011.

While the federal government is supposed to provide up to 40% of special education funding as stipulated by legislation Congress passed in 1990, only about 13% has been provided. Districts have had to divert funds from general education programs to pay for special education costs.

Gov. Laura Kelly’s proposed budget would add $72.4 million for special education every year for the next five years to meet the statutory requirement.

“We must put Kansas on track to fully fund special education because every child deserves the chance to learn and thrive,” Kelly said in a Monday news release.

Vouchers

With the COVID-19 pandemic, years of underfunding, and struggles with providing special education care, public school officials say they need time, support and funding to return better results.

Williams said funding voucher programs would help more students in Kansas. She referenced a form of a voucher plan that failed to pass the Legislature. The program would’ve provided students attending nonpublic schools with the equivalent of 95% of base state aid, which is about $5,000.

Any nonpublic preschool, elementary or high school that teaches reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies and science would be eligible to benefit financially from the proposed law, including schools that are unaccredited. The schools wouldn’t be subject to governmental oversight. Religious objects, such as Bibles, could be bought with state dollars.

“It provides all students with the opportunity for enrichment, whether they choose a private or a public school,” Williams said. “We’re waiting for action on the Senate side on that.”

The House approved the bill on a 65-58 vote, but it failed 17-20 in the Senate.

Critics of the proposal say public dollars shouldn’t be used on public schools, more than half of Kansas counties don’t have private schools, the majority of the money would go to children already enrolled in private schools, and the program would have used federal COVID-19 aid to pay for the first year, with funding taken from the state after federal dollars ran out.

Some also argued that $5,000 wouldn’t actually be enough to help lower-income families pay for private education. One Augusta resident who said she was at the federal poverty level asked if the education fund would help send her child to a private school.

“I’m not sure how you would do it at that poverty level because you’re only going to get your grant award, which wouldn’t cover but a fraction of the tuition,” Masterson said.

Guns

Masterson defended the idea of providing gun training at a young age after one Augusta resident spoke against a proposed NRA gun program for public schools.

The resident asked Masterson to carefully consider the bill, which has been debated for years. The proposed legislation, which was sent to the governor for consideration April 4, would encourage elementary and middle school students to participate in the Eddie Eagle program, an NRA-developed child gun safety curriculum.

From kindergarten through grade five, Kansas children in participating school districts would be instructed with the Eddie Eagle program, and grades six through eight would either use Eddie Eagle or other gun programs offered by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.

In an average year, 456 people die and 655 are wounded by guns in Kansas, according to Everytown for Gun Safety statistics. The organization estimated that gun deaths and injuries cost Kansas $5.7 billion each year, of which $95.1 million is paid by taxpayers.

Critics of the bill have said the training program isn’t effective. They lobby for stricter gun laws rather than child gun training.

“It is always an adult’s responsibility to prevent unauthorized access to guns, not a curious child’s responsibility to avoid guns,” said Cori Sherman North, a volunteer with the Kansas chapter of Moms Demand Action in an April 10 news release. “Kansas lawmakers should be passing bills to help curb gun violence, not misplacing responsibility on children.”

Masterson said he didn’t understand resistance to the program.

“As a gun owner myself and an advocate of the Second Amendment, I taught my own kids,” Masterson said. “When they were young, I’d set an unloaded gun out and see how they would respond to it. They’d answer what I told them to do.”

Williams said she believes most mass shooters are coming from fatherless households, though it is unclear where she got this statistic.

“Guns and the Second Amendment have been around since the founding of our nation. What is driving this change? If you look at the mass shooters that have occurred since Columbine, I believe the statistic is 75% come from fatherless homes,” Williams said. “I think what we need to do as a society is look at what’s impacting our kids, what’s causing harm to our kids.”

In their 2020 database records, the Violence Project, which tracks mass shooters, listed 29 out of 173 mass shooters as coming from single-parent households, though there was no mention of a parent’s gender.

“Lawmakers should focus on actually taking measures to save lives from gun violence, not pushing narratives based in racist tropes,” said Tonya Boyd, a volunteer with the Kansas chapter of Moms Demand Action, in response for this story to Williams’ statement.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

TOPEKA — Paying for a license to carry a concealed firearm violates “God-given rights,” a House Republican argued during a tense discussion on gun law ethics this week.

A day after a deadly mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, Rep. Rebecca Schmoe, an Ottawa Republican, advocated for a bill reducing concealed carry licensing fees out of concern that lower-income Kansans cannot afford to pay them. Schmoe said it was wrong to have to pay to “exercise a right” and that people who opposed the bill were discriminating based on finances.

“It means that you do believe in separate access to rights based upon income, and that low-income need not apply.” Schmoe said. “I urge you to stand for the rights that we are granted — our natural, God-given rights.”

Kansas legalized the concealed carry of firearms in 2015. Under state law, anyone 21 or older can carry concealed weapons in the state without a license or permit, but getting a license allows Kansans to concealed carry a gun in other states.

A concealed carry permit costs $132.50, with $100 going to the Attorney General’s Office and $32.50 paid to the applicant’s county sheriff. To get the license, applicants have to undergo an eight-hour weapons safety and training course and obtain a certificate of completion from a certified trainer.

Schmoe and other bill supporters said the legislation would increase overall firearm safety in the state. The bill would get rid of the $100 payment to the Attorney General’s Office and remove permit renewal fees and late fees. Concealed carry licenses cost $16, with half of the money placed in the state highway fund. That fee also would be eliminated by the bill.

The Kansas Department of Revenue has issued an average of 21,139 concealed carry licenses every year for the past five years, and doing away with the licensing fees would cost an estimated $1.2 million loss in fee collections in the next fiscal year.

Attorney General Kris Kobach spoke in support of the fee reduction during a March 7 House committee hearing on the bill.

“One should not have to pay the state a fee in order to exercise a constitutional right,” Kobach said. “We don’t have to buy a license to exercise our right to speak here today. Church goers do not pay the state in order to attend church, and lawful gun owners shouldn’t have to pay for the privilege of bearing arms in a manner that is the most common way of carrying in the 21st century.”

During Tuesday’s debate, House Minority Leader Rep. Vic Miller, a Topeka Democrat, supported the bill on the grounds that it would encourage more people to go through the training process.

“If they’re going to carry a weapon, I prefer they have the training,” Miller said.

Concealed carry opponents

Other Democrats spoke against the state’s loose gun control laws.

Reps. Barbara Ballard, Jo Ella Hoye, Stephanie Sawyer-Clayton and Linda Featherston all tried to shepherd gun control measures into the bill by introducing amendments on increased training, safe gun storage and tighter controls on gun access.

All amendments were pulled because GOP members ruled the changes weren’t germane to the licensing process.

Featherston, a Overland Park Democrat, said she initially thought about supporting the bill because it would encourage more people to get trained. Featherston changed her mind after speaking with one of her constituents, a pregnant mom terrified for her family’s safety.

Featherston said the mom told her she was worried about taking her children in public spaces because of fears of gun violence.

“I’m not sure at this point that I can betray that mom nor do anything that would allow one more hidden, loaded gun on a college campus,” Featherston said.

Hoye said she was angry about debating the bill a day after the latest U.S. mass shooting. A former student at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, killed three children and three adults before police officers killed the shooter.

Hoye said it was time to tighten Kansas gun laws and challenged the ruling that her proposed amendment wasn’t germane.

“Frankly, I’m tired of inaction from lawmakers like us,” Hoye said. “I’m willing to break the rules to protect our kids.”

Her rule challenge failed.

The House passed the legislation 91-33 on Wednesday morning. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

TOPEKA — Going against professional medical advice, lawmakers advanced a bill requiring health care providers to tell people undergoing drug-induced abortions they can still change their minds. Providers who refuse to do so could face thousands in fines and potential jail time.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposes the idea of an abortion reversal process, calling it scientifically unsound, unproven and unethical. Republican legislators passed the bill out of the House Health and Human Services Committee on Monday.

Committee chairwoman Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, said the legislation wasn’t unethical because it merely suggested the possibility of abortion reversal, rather than promised it.

“I take objection to being told that we are passing legislation that is totally misleading because I don’t believe it is,” Landwehr said. “It doesn’t give any guarantees in this that it will actually reverse it. It gives a possible option.”

Mifepristone, otherwise known as the abortion pill, is the first of two drugs used in medication abortions, and has been FDA-approved for years. The second, misoprostol, is usually taken within a 48-hour period of the first pill. While mifepristone can be used to end pregnancy on its own at certain doses, according to the World Health Organization, the U.S. FDA-approved method is for patients to take both medications.

Similar legislation has been vetoed by Gov. Laura Kelly in past years. Several other states have considered or passed similar abortion reversal legislation, such as North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma and Idaho. Though several such laws were blocked in federal court.

Under the bill, facilities that prescribe or dispense mifepristone would have to display a notice telling patients that medication abortions may be reversible. The notice would tell the patient that mifepristone isn’t always effective in ending a pregnancy, and the abortion could possibly be reversed if the second pill hasn’t been taken.

The notice would also include resources the patient could access in an attempt to reverse the medication abortion. In places where mifepristone is taken, such as clinics, hospitals and pharmacies, the signs would be posted in waiting rooms and other areas used by people seeking abortion pills.

Physicians would also be required to tell people seeking mifepristone-based abortions that reversal may be possible and provide related resources before giving the patient medication, except in cases of medical emergency.

Opponents of the legislation, including doctors, Planned Parenthood and the Trust Women Foundation, submitted written testimony to object to the bill.

“If this was truly bad legislation, I find it interesting that the opponents just submitted written testimony and did not come testify orally in front of this committee,” said Rep. Tory Marie Blew, R-Great Bend.

Landwehr agreed with her.

“Apparently, they didn’t see it as that big a threat,” Landwehr said.

Supporters include anti-abortion groups such as Kansans for Life.

If the bill passes, physicians that refuse to talk about abortion reversal on more than one occasion could face up to a year of jail time. Health care facilities that prescribe or administer mifepristone could be fined $10,000 if they refuse to put up the mandatory notice.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said the legislation could cost the state $85,000 in fiscal year 2024 for implementation and compliance.

Rep. Melissa Oropeza, a Kansas City Democrat and a nurse practitioner, said she was worried the legislation would cause more distrust of health care workers.

“These days, being a health care provider, we are always up against the web and social media,” Oropeza said. “Having one more poster to fight is unfortunate.”

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

“There are some kids that do need Jesus first, before they care about science and math,” said Williams, speaking with unusual candor about motivation for the Legislature’s consideration of changes to funding public and private education in Kansas.

Williams, an Augusta Republican and the driving force behind Senate Bill 83, made a hometown appearance Sunday to talk with community members during a 90-minute forum moderated by teachers Brandi Kaus, Laci Ybarra, Jamie Klem and Rob Klem. Almost a hundred people showed up to the event, which was planned and put together by the four in about 24 hours.

Kaus, who taught all of Willams’ children at Augusta Middle School, said she was puzzled and hurt that someone who utilized the public education system for her own children would turn around and “just annihilate public schools.”

“I don’t see how she can’t see that what she’s doing will hurt all of us,” Kaus said.

Kaus said the event originated through a heated Facebook message exchange with Williams, in which Kaus asked Williams to explain why the proposal was a good idea. Williams agreed to come and talk to the public about the program.

SB83, also known as the Sunflower Education Equity Act, would use state money to fund private schools starting in the 2023-2024 school year. Each eligible private school student could draw a maximum of $5,000 annually from the state treasury. Any nonpublic preschool, elementary or high school that teaches reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies and science would be eligible to benefit financially from the proposed law.

The voucher-like bill passed the House 64-61 with arm twisting by GOP leaders. It contrasted with the approach embraced by the Kansas Senate calling for tax credits and student scholarships for the benefit of private schools. The bill specifies eligible schools wouldn’t be subject to government oversight.

During the Sunday meeting, several audience members expressed concern about the impact of the voucher-program proposal on the future K-12 public education, while others suggested regulation of the program could be insufficient. Jamie Klem said the audience was frustrated by William’s answers.

“Just about every single question that we posed to her, she skirted around or danced around the issue rather than directly answering the question,” Klem said. “So after a few of those, the crowd grew more and more frustrated with her and started to vocalize that. I wouldn’t say it was angry but more so impassioned.”

During the event, Williams said teacher licenses and credentials didn’t necessarily define a good educator.

“I actually believe great teachers are not made through licensure,” said Williams, who chairs the House K-12 budget committee. “I think great schools are made not through accreditation. I think great schools and great teachers and great people come through great practices and hard work.”

Under the legislation, the context or religious nature of a product or service couldn’t be considered when determining expenditure of the $5,000 allotment from the state, meaning the money could be used to buy Bibles and religious objects.

Williams said the proposal would give more options to Kansas parents looking to provide their children religious education.

“I’ll tell you one thing that’s missing in our society, and you won’t find it, generally, openly in public schools, and that’s the spiritual perspective,” Williams said. “If a parent believes having Jesus with their education is important, they can do that. There’s a God-sized hole in a lot of people’s hearts.”

The House also merged into the voucher-like bill appropriation of $592.7 million for special education programs in fiscal year 2024 and placed a mandate on school districts to increase teacher salaries.

Gov. Laura Kelly, who has repeatedly campaigned for increased special education funding, said she disapproved of bundling special education funding and teacher pay raises with the controversial voucher-like legislation.

“I believe that public monies ought to be spent on public schools,” Kelly said during a Monday news conference. “Public schools are very important here in the state of Kansas. We’re a rural state. Public schools are often the hub of the community and anything to undermine them would be undermining the entire fabric and structure of Kansas itself.”

There are thought to be 125 accredited and 28 unaccredited private schools operating in Kansas, and most of those would be characterized as religious based. Sixty-five Kansas counties don’t have private schools, with one-third of the total established in Johnson and Sedgwick counties.

Ybarra said Williams didn’t pay attention to her constituents’ concerns.

“What we wanted from her was for her to listen to us because she represents us, her constituents, and she should be taking what we want back to Topeka,” Ybarra said. “She was there to change our minds, but she wasn’t there to listen to us.”

“She’s not capable of listening,” Rob Klem added. “She made that very clear.”

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

She testified before a House panel that is considering another attempt to ban transgender athletes from participating in school sports — a ban that would apply to just two public school students in Kansas.

“I have this crushing weight on me because this is not only my kid, but thousands of kids,” Meyer said. “We are just legislating away their rights and freedoms, and their ability to live a happy life. All they want to do is exist, and for some reason folks in the legislature don’t want to let that happen.”

Democrats in the House said the hearing marked the start of “hate week,” a reference to planned discussions on multiple bills attacking the LGBTQ community in Kansas.

‘Hate week’ lineup

House Bill 2238, which had a hearing Monday, would prevent transgender girls from playing girls sports at the K-12 and college level. Senate Bill 12 would ban gender-affirming health care for transgender people ages 21 and younger.

Senate Bill 233, which is set to be heard Tuesday, would revoke the licenses of physicians who perform gender-reassignment surgery for people younger than 18. The bill also would allow people who had gender-reassignment surgery before the age of 18 to file a civil lawsuit against the physician who performed the surgery.

House Bill 2376, which is scheduled for a Wednesday hearing, would prohibit city or county nondiscrimination ordinances that are more restrictive than state law, which doesn’t include LGBTQ protections.

Senate Bill 149, which would ban drag performances for minors, isn’t yet scheduled for discussion.

Senate Bill 180, which is scheduled to be heard Wednesday, would create a “women’s bill of rights” that would segregate spaces based on biological reproductive abilities, meaning transgender women wouldn’t be allowed in female-designated areas at domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, locker rooms or restrooms.

During a news conference Monday, House Democrats said they would prioritize LGBTQ rights. Sen. Susan Ruiz, a Shawnee Democrat, said she had lost respect for her colleagues in the Senate. Ruiz said Senate President Ty Masterson is intolerant.

“The president of the Senate is very, very, very anti-LGBT, very anti-trans,” Ruiz said. “He doesn’t care if children kill themselves due to any of these laws that we are proposing. And if he thinks that kids aren’t listening, he is very wrong. Kids are listening.”

Fairness in sports

During a Monday House Education Committee hearing on House Bill 2238, which would create the “fairness in women’s sports act” if enacted, lawmakers, parents, college students and others stood to testify about the harmful impact the legislation would have.

The bill stipulates that female student athletic teams from kindergarten to college only include cisgender girls or women. Under the bill, no governmental agency, athletic association or organization could take action against public education entities for keeping athletic teams or sports divided by gender.

Another part of the bill states that students who have been harmed or deprived of athletic opportunities because their team or sport isn’t limited to cisgender females would have a legal claim to seek redress.

According to the Kansas State High School Activities Association, only two transgender youths in the state that would be affected by the legislation.

Rep. Jerry Stogsdill, a Prairie Village Democrat, said the bill had an extremely limited scope.

“It’s terrible and evil,” Stogsdill said. “It’s hateful, it’s unnecessary, it’s a political attempt to play to the lowest common denominator in the Republican Party.”

Committee chairman Rep. Adam Thomas, a Olathe Republican, said the legislation is meant to safeguard future transgender athletes. The legislation, he said, will be needed with the “way the nation is moving with all of this.”

Thomas said the bill would protect Kansas daughters and women’s sports in the state.

“I know plenty of females who probably struggle with suicide because they’re missing out on scholarships, they’re missing out on opportunities,” Thomas said.

Meyer said the week of legislation, including the sports ban bill, is meant to wear Democrats in the Legislature down.

“They are trying to burn us out,” Meyer said.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

During a House Elections Committee hearing, House Bill 2057 was opposed by a slew of election officers and voting rights advocacy groups questioned the need for the legislation. They included Loud Light, the Disability Rights Center of Kansas and the Kansas African American Affairs Commission.

Drop box security

The legislation would impose strict regulations on remote ballot boxes. County election offices with populations of less than 30,000 would be allowed to use only one remote ballot box per election. For county election offices in areas with more than 30,000 people, another box would be granted for each additional group of 30,000. The remote box would have to be under continual observation by an employee or via video, and closed when the election office is closed.

The video recording would have to be situated so the faces of people dropping off the ballots into the box would be recorded, and the recording would be kept for a year, available for public record, among other stipulations. Critics of the bill say it’s unnecessary, would block Kansans from their democratic right to vote and would prove costly for local election offices, which pay for elections.

Mike Taylor, who spoke on behalf of the Kansas County Commissioners Association, which represents the elected commissioners in all 105 counties, said the organization opposed the legislation on many grounds and felt it would harm voter privacy.

“We are opposing this bill because we think it’s going to disenfranchise many, many voters who depend on easy access to those drop boxes,” Taylor said. “We also think it’s going to add a lot of unneeded expense to the counties and taxpayers.”

The only person who spoke in favor of the bill during the meeting was an out-of-state speaker, Madeline Malisa from the Opportunity Solutions Project.

When asked if there was any evidence of ballot box tampering in the state, Malisa said she hadn’t heard of anything in Kansas but thought the lack of evidence could be due to the lack of ballot box video surveillance.

Rep. Kenneth Collins, R-Mulberry, asked county election officials if they had heard of any “mules” harassing people trying to drop off votes. Committee Vice Chair Rep. Paul Waggoner, a Hutchinson Republican, also brought up mules, a conservative term for people who are paid to cast illegal ballots.

“I think part of the concern that’s kind of driven bills like this has been partly the whole notion of what are called mules, as far as that somehow somebody’s going to stuff a ballot box akin to, you know, there was a documentary called ‘2,000 Mules’ that came out a year ago,” Waggoner said.

“2,000 Mules,” a debunked film from right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza, falsely claims there was significant voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election. The movie’s makers have been sued for defamation.

Election officials said they weren’t aware of any issues with drop boxes during the 2020 and 2022 elections, in terms of people trying to tamper with boxes or in terms of ballot security.

Rep. Cindy Neighbor, D-Shawnee, questioned the need for additional ballot box security measures.

“From our secretary of state, it doesn’t appear that we’ve had a problem with them,” Neighbor said. “And the ones we are seeing are extremely secure. And that’s why I wanted clarity on how this was happening in Kansas.”

Other voting legislation

Stacey Knoell, executive director of the Kansas African American Affairs Commission, said she was one of 14,917 people who voted by drop box in Johnson County during the 2021 election.

Knoell said she objected to the bill and other recently introduced legislation, such as House Bill 2056, which would require all advance ballots to be returned by 7 p.m. on Election Day, eliminating the three-day window currently in place.

“I think it is part of the government’s job to make voting as accessible and as equitable as we can for people who need to vote,” Knoell said. “I want to reiterate what another conferee said: If we take this bill in conjunction with other bills, we’re just making it more difficult to vote for various reasons. We’re not having a three-day extended period. I just oppose these upon the moral stance that we need to make it more easy for people to vote in this country.”

HB 2056 was voted on during the meeting and garnered enough votes to pass favorably out of the committee, despite some objections from lawmakers.

Neighbor said she believed the bill would harm overseas soldiers who didn’t get their ballots sent back on time, through no fault of their own, and felt it harmed constitutional rights.

Another bill considered during the hearing was better received. House Bill 2053 would authorize the secretary of state to adopt rules and regulations for returning advance voting ballots to remote ballot boxes.

The secretary of state would use existing resources to provide procedure training for county election officials, work with the public to ensure knowledge of remote ballot box requirements, and include dates, times and locations for drop-box protocol.

The legislation was supported by Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s office, with staffer Clay Barker saying regulations would provide physical security standards for drop boxes, chain of custody, disability access and would protect county election officers by ensuring they have met the proper standards for drop-off ballot procedures.

Election officials and a spokeswoman from the League of Women Voters of Kansas said they also supported the bill, as it would clear up confusion and provide better guidelines.

Barker said the regulations would also hopefully alleviate election security concerns.

“There is concern out there about drop boxes, ‘2,000 Mules,’ ballot harvesting, and this is a way to respond to it,” Barker said.

The Big Lie

Many Republicans at the national and local level have denied the results of the 2020 election, casting doubt on election security. Schwab has bucked this trend by repeatedly underscoring the security of Kansas elections, including in the 2022 midterms.

Other Kansas Republicans have called for more stringent voting security measures despite a lack of evidence for widespread voter fraud. Proposed voting restrictions have drawn criticism from groups who say many of the new bills would disenfranchise voters.

When asked if he was concerned about voters’ rights, committee chairman Pat Proctor, a Leavenworth Republican, said he was trying to walk the line between addressing vulnerabilities in the system and making the voting process more difficult.

Proctor also said that lawmakers needed to find new ways of inspiring election deniers to trust the system again.

When asked why additional ballot box security was needed, he compared the issue to 9/11 and said there is nothing to prevent people from throwing chains around drop boxes and dragging them off with trucks.

“Well, you know, on Sept. 11, 2001, I bet people really wished they had locked the cabins on airplanes on Sept. 10, but it was too late,” Proctor said. “If we’ve identified vulnerabilities, it’s ridiculous that we would not try to address those vulnerabilities until we’ve got evidence that they’ve been exploited in the election.”

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

TOPEKA — Lawmakers and education officials sparred for more than two hours Wednesday over a proposal to expand a private school tax credit originally billed as a way to serve low-income Kansas students.

Education officials and Democrats criticized House Bill 2048 during a tense, jampacked House K-12 Education Budget Committee hearing. Critics said the legislation would harm Kansas students and serve special interest groups by incentivizing the privatization of Kansas education, ultimately taking funds away from Kansas public schools.

The tax credit currently allows organizations and taxpayers to write off 70% of scholarships they provide to private schools, with a maximum allowable credit of $500,000 per year. HB2048 would expand student eligibility for the program and allow a 100% tax write-off.

“Holy tax scams, that is a masterful shell game,” said Rep. Mari-Lynn Poskin, an Overland Park Democrat. “For the good of the committee, I just want to reiterate that any religious organization or dark money special interest group can basically divert their group’s entire Kansas tax liability up to those limits from our state’s general funds to scholarship-granting organizations for distribution to private schools that are not subject to the same oversight as our Kansas public schools.”

Under current law, students must be Kansas residents and qualify for free or reduced lunches under the National School Lunch Act, and meet other standards, to get scholarships to private schools. Criteria includes being enrolled in a public school in grades K-8 during the prior school year, being seven years or younger at the time of seeking a scholarship, or having previously received a scholarship.

HB2048 would remove the reduced/free lunch eligibility requirement. Instead, students would need to have an annual family income under or equal to 250% of the federal poverty level. Other eligibility criteria would include having a parent serving in active duty, having a parent who is a firefighter, medical service provider or a law enforcement officer, or having been in foster care or a kinship care placement.

Taxpayers who contribute to a scholarship-granting organization could receive a 100% reimbursement in tax credits, starting next year, depending on how widespread the program is used.

Rep. Kristey Williams, an Augusta Republican and committee chairwoman, said she couldn’t give exact figures for how many people would be eligible for scholarships under the expanded program. She said the legislation is geared toward helping more students.

“We want kids to have the best education,” Williams said. “It should not matter to any of us where they go. We should be funding kids, students, not systems. And as soon as we learn to fund kids, then they can start achieving well, graduating and going onto the workforce.”

Williams also introduced a private school voucher bill at the start of the meeting, to make it easier for parents to pull money directly out of a public school’s budget and use it on private school tuition.

Proponents of the bill included private school officials, private school leaders and scholarship program organizers. Delia Shropshire, president of the Holy Savior Catholic Academy in Wichita, said the program allowed her school to serve more children.

“With this opportunity we can ensure that every child has a chance to learn, grow and develop in an academic environment that meets their academic, cultural, social and emotional and spiritual needs,” Shropshire said.

Opponents of the bill included the Kansas Association of School Boards and public school advocates.

Kansas State Board of Education member Ann Mah said she was concerned about the lack of data on the program’s success.

“So where’s the beef?” Mah said. “Where are the numbers to show that it worked, that our Kansas scholarship students actually do better academically in private schools? Where is the oversight?”

Mah said she was concerned because Kansas private schools can select and reject students as they choose, are not required to provide special services for high-risk students, aren’t subject to oversight, and have different standards than public schools in the state.

Mah said there is a double standard because lawmakers wouldn’t give public schools a massive funding hike without significant data.

“I guess that helping struggling students was never the objective in the first place. For now, without proof of any success, we’re moving on to paying middle-class successful students to go to private schools,” Mah said. “And to make it worse, you’re allowing students to go from nationally recognized public schools to lower-performing private schools. And we can’t forget the money factor. Who ever heard of a program that allows a $500,000 tax break? I’m guessing the billionaires who are promoting privatizing and defunding public schools really like this bill.”

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

TOPEKA — GOP mailers flooding Kansas mailboxes across the state in the last push before Election Day are focusing on crime.

Some Kansans have called the mailer contents blatant lies and a form of fearmongering that follows national GOP election tactics.

Republican candidates are accusing Democratic opponents of increasing crime and wanting to defund the police, stirring up voter fears ahead of the election by using the COVID-19 pandemic crime spike in 2019-2020, though crime has decreased in the past year.

Rep. Heather Meyer, an Overland Park Democrat, is running for reelection against Republican David Soffer. Meyer has represented her district for about a year, replacing former Democratic Rep. Brett Parker in September 2021.

One mailer funded by the Kansas Republican Party claimed Meyer was “fueling the Kansas crime surge,” saying Kansas families lived in fear of rising violent crimes in Kansas. Other information on the mailer said that Kansas was named one of the most dangerous states in the U.S. and that Kansas’ overall violent crime rate is higher than the average.

Meyer said the mailer was filled with false information, and showed the Kansas GOP’s lack of principles.

“The Kansas GOP and my opponent have continued to send out slanderous mailers which are not only filled with misinformation, but also lack integrity, any sense of ethical responsibility to our constituency, and put my family in danger,” Meyer said in a statement to the Kansas Reflector.

“Everyday we read more headlines about the violent crime in Kansas on the rise, and all of us wonder the same thing: ‘Will it strike my family next?’ ” the mailer read.

But 2021 data released by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation actually shows a decrease in overall crime in Kansas. The total crime index documents the number of crimes per 1,000 people. In 2021, total index crimes decreased 9.2% from the 10-year average, and 6.9% from the previous year.

The number of violent index crimes was 17.9% above the 10-year average, but decreased 2.1% compared to 2020. In 2021, the rate of violent crimes in Kansas was about 4.6 offenses per 1,000 people. Compared to 2020, the murder rate decreased 10.4%, rape decreased by 0.3% and robbery decreased by 17.9%.

The mailer said Kansans couldn’t trust Meyer to keep them safe, and that she was “endorsed by a radical group that called for defunding the police.” The radical group referenced is the Kansas National Education Association.

Marcus Baltzell, director of communications for the KNEA, said this was a lie. The KNEA has never considered supporting defunding the police, he said.

“It’s patently absurd. We wonder who’s not doing their research over there, because we have never as an organization called for defunding the police,” Baltzell said. “I can’t even say that they’re obfuscating the truth. They just are not interested in the truth, apparently.”

When asked about the defunding police statement, Shannon Pahls, Kansas GOP spokeswoman, referenced a June 2020 letter sent to congressional leaders by a civil rights coalition. The letter doesn’t say anything about defunding the police, instead asking for greater police accountability in the wake of several racially biased police killings. The letter was signed by the National Education Association, not the Kansas chapter.

“That letter advocates for the elimination of federal programs that provide resources to law enforcement,” Pahls said, referencing a section that asked lawmakers to get rid of federal programs that provide military-grade equipment to law enforcement.

“Heather Meyer registered to vote as a socialist and has embraced some of the most extreme policies of the Democrat Party,” Pahls said in a statement to Kansas Reflector. “She has welcomed the support of groups who have advocated for defunding our police. This is not surprising given that she registered as a socialist, but her views are far outside the mainstream.”

Meyer said GOP rhetoric is used to distract voters from real issues.

“It’s deeply unsettling that they are so afraid of discussing policy and what we will do for our communities, that they will resort to smear tactics and violent rhetoric, instead of telling voters where they stand and what they’ll do,” Meyer said.

Republicans at national and local levels have used crime and economic inflation as rallying points of their voters, turning public conversation away from reproductive rights issues that galvanized Kansas voters, particularly women, into action during the August vote.

Baltzell said he hopes Kansans voters can see through Republican rhetoric.

“They are lying to their voters, plain and simple,” Baltzell said.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.