Voice For Liberty

Tag: Kansas legislature

Articles about the Kansas legislature, both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

  • AFP event in Topeka draws grassroot activists to capitol

    Yesterday Americans For Prosperity — Kansas held “Make the Calls and Flood the Halls,” an event at the Kansas Capitol.

    AFP arranged for buses from both Wichita and Johnson County to bring grassroots activists to Topeka.

    Most activists I talked to are very concerned about the level of spending in Kansas. The potential rollback of taxes reductions passed in previous years — a course recommended by the governor — is troublesome. Even though most of these activists are not business owners, they realize the important role that business activity and investment means to Kansas. The additional taxes that some want business to pay will mean that businesses will be able to employ fewer people.

    Talking to legislators, I learned that most think the “veto session” so far has been mostly a waste of time. Even though the legislature has important and pressing matters to face, these are put off until the last few days the legislature is allowed to be in session. Then, often critical votes are taken at 3:00 a.m. when everyone is beaten down and too tired to care or reason.

  • Kansas HB 2014 vote analysis

    In the Kansas House of Representatives, two votes were taken this year on HB 2014. The major purpose of this bill is to allow the building of a coal-fired power plant in Kansas.

    The first vote, taken on February 27, 2009, was 79 Yes and 44 No. On April 3, 2009, the vote was 74 Yes and 48 No.

    So what changed? I prepared the following table to spot the changes. For representatives whose votes changed, the word “Change” appears.

    Two curious changes are Ray Merrick and Jason Watkins. I’m going to be in Topeka tomorrow, and I’ll try to track down these two and ask.

    Kansas HB 2014 Vote Analysis

  • Kansas school spending advocates ramp up

    Today the Kansas Legislature returns to Topeka for a session that must deal with the difficult realities of the Kansas budget. Constituencies that depend of government spending have been making their cases for their programs to be spared cuts. The public school lobby is perhaps the most vocal.

    Kansas Families for Education is a group that incessantly and shrilly pleads for more education spending. This in spite of their leader Kathy Cook’s inability to pay her own property taxes on time.

    This group’s recent email to its members contains an impassioned plea for legislators to avoid the “deep cuts” the House Appropriations Committee recommends. This committee recommend cuts of $100 million. While that sounds like a lot, it amounts to $117 per student, putting Kansas base state aid per pupil at $4,250.

    That’s a cut of about 2.7%. But that considers only state funding, and only base funding at that. When you look at a cut of $117 per student in the context of the $13,000 spent annually per student by the Wichita school district, it’s a cut of less than 1%.

    Wichita interim Superintendent Martin Libhart, in Wichita Eagle reporting said that the cuts to USD 259, the Wichita public school district, would be $4.8 million to $8.7 million, depending on whether the House or Senate’s version of cuts wins. This represents a cut of from 0.8% to 1.4%, based on total Wichita spending.

    School spending advocates don’t use total school spending in these calculations, however. They want to use just the state-funded spending, so that the cuts look proportionally larger.

    As we’ve seen, these school spending advocates either don’t know how much schools spend, or they’re embarrassed to admit how much is spent.

    Here’s some talking points Cook’s organization is asking people to use:

    “Schools are our largest employers in many communities. A cut in funding will result in teacher layoffs.” It’s a problem that government schools are so large. We’d be better off with a more diverse blend of private, parochial, home schooling, and charter schools. As to teacher layoffs, there are a multitude of ways schools can cut their spending without laying off teachers.

    “Our economy can’t recover without a well educated workforce.” Perhaps true, but relying on our public schools to produce this well-educated workforce is a mistake, at least according to recent remarks by President Obama.

    “Our schools have used their money to increase student achievement, don’t put this roadblock up.” Whether student achievement is increasing is an open question. See Kansas school test scores: can they be reconciled with national tests? for a question I’ve put to the Kansas State Department of Education.

    “Please don’t play politics with our children. They deserve better.” Public schools in Kansas fund themselves through government rather than voluntary market transactions. School funding, therefore, is a political matter.

  • South-central Kansas legislative forum touches variety of issues

    On Saturday April 25, 2009, members of the South-central Kansas Legislative Delegation met with citizens at the Wichita Water Center. Nine of the approximately 25 members of the delegation attended.

    When the Kansas Legislature reconvenes this week, the budget is the big issue, especially since the recent revenue forecast requires the state to either cut additional spending or raise more revenue. Since K-12 public schools consume about half of the state’s general budget, there’s discussion that school spending is at risk.

    With school funding a likely topic, employees of USD 259, the Wichita public school district, showed up in force at this meeting. Kathy Busch and Denise Wren represented the top management of USD 259. Representatives of Wichita middle schools and high schools attended and were recognized by chair Rep. Melody McCray-Miller. Wichita teachers union leadership attended. Even a representative of Wichita Association of Retired School Personnel was recognized by the chair.

    One estimate was that two-thirds of the meeting attendees were associated with public schools.

    Surprisingly, school funding issues didn’t dominate the meeting. But regarding school spending, a question I asked, in writing, was that with the Wichita school district spending $13,000 per year per student, will potential cuts of a few hundred dollars really hurt things? Chair McCray-Miller disputed the $13,000 per-student spending figure. She asked if the question-writer — that was me — wanted to stand and clarify. She said she’d prefer that dollar amounts be vetted.

    Sensing that I was in a hostile environment, and without the source of the figures at my disposal, I didn’t answer her call. Perhaps I should have, as supporters of ever-increasing public school spending are reluctant to admit the actual spending of the schools. Wichita board of education member Lanora Nolan disputed these same figures at a Wichita Pachyderm Club meeting.

    Chair McCray-Miller didn’t know if the reference to cuts of a few hundred dollars referred to per-student or overall spending. I should have clarified, but the meaning of the question was clear. This was a convenient way to dodge answering the question.

    Someone in the audience mentioned that this is the figure that now-Sedgwick County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn has used. The mention of his name drew a groan from the audience.

    Later there was a question referring to the Montoy decision that forced the legislature to increase school funding. Will school spending cuts violate this ruling? Chair McCray-Miller said no, not for now. Rep. Ward went through a history of the recent level of school funding in Kansas, and concluded that the way funding has been cut disequalizes school funding and is not fair. He speculated that the economic circumstances of the state may not be justification for cutting spending beyond the levels that were agreed on.

    A young man, a senior in high school, asked what was being done to keep costs of college tuition down. The answer given by Rep. Jim Ward is that state funding of higher education, as a proportion of schools’ budget, has been declining.

    A question asked what measures the legislature was taking to increase employment in Kansas. Rep. Nile Dillmore spoke about a bill that provides a subsidy to companies that meet certain criteria. This subsidy is paid back by using the withholding taxes paid by the company’s employees. He did recognize that this has a negative impact on the state’s revenue.

    Rep. Ward added that he doesn’t believe the state creates jobs, but the state creates an environment that makes those jobs possible. He believes that public investment, such as in public education, technical education, public safety, and roads contribute to this environment.

    Planned Parenthood funding was discussed. Some legislators believe that abortion takes too much of the legislature’s time year after year. Whether this is a valid criticism probably depends on your views of this issue.

    There was praise for the fact that the state has increased its minimum wage. Chair McCray-Miller said that we still need to look at a “living wage” for individuals with benefits “so they can truly enjoy the fruits of life.”

  • Wichita-area school superintendents make flawed case

    Sunday’s Wichita Eagle contains an op-ed piece by several Wichita-area public school superintendents that calls for the Kansas Legislature to spare K-12 education from budget cuts. (Superintendents: Avoid further cuts to public education, April 26, 2009 Wichita Eagle)

    The piece starts with a recognition of the importance of education. I don’t think that anyone will disagree with this assertion. From then on, however, there’s little that I can agree with.

    The op-ed states “In the past eight years, student proficiency in math has increased by 30 percent, and reading proficiency has increased by 25 percent.” Numbers similar to these appear in the “Executive Summary” portion of the Kansas Education Summary dated January 2009. (You may read this report by clicking on Kansas Education Summary.)

    The problem is that these numbers may not be believable. At the same time Kansas school test scores are steadily rising — the Wichita school district’s scores follow the same trend (see Wichita Test Scores Largely Mirror Kansas) — our state’s performance on the National Assessment of Education Progress is pretty much flat over a similar time period. A few measures have improved, but not by nearly the magnitude measured on the Kansas tests. Other measures have improved only slightly, or not at all.

    (To view NAEP results, click on NAEP state profiles and select “Kansas.”)

    I’ve recently asked the Kansas State Department of Education how these results can be reconciled.

    This op-ed also tells us how public schools are “our area’s largest employer next to our aviation manufacturers.” This is a problem, not a reason or justification for plowing more money into schools. The more that is spent on public schools, the fewer dollars families have to spend on other types of education.

    Then, there’s this: “Additional cuts will leave school districts with few options but to increase class sizes and eliminate or reduce crucial services that allow all students to receive a world-class education and be the future economic drivers in our communities.”

    Are our students receiving a “world-class” education? Are we measuring based on Kansas test scores or the NAEP test scores reported above?

    Then, President Obama certainly doesn’t think our schools are “world-class.” In a March 10, 2009 speech he said: “We have everything we need to be that nation … and yet, despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we have let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short, and other nations outpace us.”

    There’s also the focus on class size, which was a large reason for the bond issue in the Wichita school district last year. Small class sizes — important to teachers unions and education bureaucrats — turn out to have little or no effect on student achievement. An excerpt from the Report Card on American Education published by the American Legislative Exchange Council and given to me by a newly-elected member of the Kansas State Board of Education states this:

    Surprisingly, the data show that academic achievement cannot be accounted for by any of the measures of public investment used in this study (pupil-teacher ratio, per pupil expenditures, teacher salaries, and funds received from the federal government), either singly or as a blend. This conclusion is borne out when variations in average SAT scores per state are tracked over the past two decades alongside changes in these measures of public investment. If anything, this statistical analysis demonstrates a positive, but weak, relationship between student success and percentage of federal funding, and pupil-teacher ratio — yet not in the manner one would anticipate. … The information shows that higher student scores on standardized tests correlate mildly with more pupils per teacher and less federal involvement with public school budgets.”

    The course that the Wichita public school district, in particular, is taking doesn’t show much promise for increasing educational outcomes, at least according to current research. When the public schools make their case to be exempted from the sacrifices that other Kansans are being asked to make, these are the things we need to remember.

  • Does Jim Ward hate trees?

    Yesterday members of the South-central Kansas Legislative Delegation — nine of them, anyway — met for two hours with citizens. Following is a citizen report sent to me.

    Does Jim Ward hate trees?

    The Legislative Forum focused on the budget shortfall and how to deal with it. I was shocked within the first five minutes when, after the panel was introduced, only specific members of the audience were given special recognition. Audience members who were employees of USD 259, the Wichita public school district, were granted time carved out of the people’s minutes. Each was honored with an introduction by name, place of work, and even given time to talk about their sports teams! Attendees not on the government payroll — e.g. those paying the salaries of each person specially recognized and catered to — got not a word of recognition. Were we worth that little? Actually worth the nothing they gave us? Do the legislators believe that each person in the room has one vote each, or do some get extra? I think I witnessed vote-buying. And it wasn’t their constituents they cared about; no, it was fellow government hacks.

    Comments by one legislator on the first topic are downright disgusting. Regarding the the expansion of Holcomb Station (new power plants a private company seeks to build with its own funds in southwest Kansas), Representative Jim Ward expressed concern over the carbon dioxide “and other poisonous gases” the plant would give off.

    Are you shocked? Jim Ward thinks that the air you exhale is poisonous. I could only think that maybe his hot air is poisonous — well, not just “maybe,” but definitely. Doesn’t he know that plant life on our planet must have carbon dioxide to live? Is he ignorant of the fact that we humans, animals, your dog and cat have a natural symbiotic relationship with plants? We produce the carbon dioxide that plants need to live and they use it to produce more oxygen for us to live. There’s long been a natural balance in the earth. It existed long before he came along. How does he not know this? And, most especially why is he calling CO2 poison? Does he hate plants? Does he want to exterminate plant life? Is he anti-vegetable? Does he hate flowers? Perhaps he hates trees? Where was this guy educated? … Oh wait, he probably went to the schools run by those people in the room who were granted the highest attention and honor for their very presence — I bet he went to a monopolistic government school. The ones we are forced to pay for and to which he’d evidently love to force all people to attend. This is why he can’t think for himself.

    — Val

  • Kansas teachers union doublespeak not hard to decode

    Reading the Kansas National Education Association’s — that’s the teachers union, also known as KNEA — report Under the Dome is becoming an exercise in decoding doublespeak.

    Today’s issue, which you can read by clicking on Under the Dome Today for April 23, 2009, contains some 417 words that hope for something to happen, without using the words that describe the thing hoped for.

    Instead, today’s issue hopes for the Kansas legislature to implement “revenue solutions.” Here’s a little sample:

    The Senate Ways and Means Committee meeting today took a different approach. They reviewed a laundry list of possible revenue solutions and called for introduction of a number of them as they have debated their version of the omnibus budget for 2010. This action notifies the tax committee in the Senate that they want certain revenue solutions brought forward, allowing them to adopt a smaller cut to education and other state services than that passed by the House.

    The word “solutions” is a positive word, conjuring up a mental image of someone making progress towards fixing a problem. In the past they’ve used “adjustments,” but that doesn’t have the positive connotation that “solution” has.

    “Tax hikes” — that’s what these revenue solutions are — is a negative phrase. The writers of “Under the Dome” are smart enough to recognize that most people don’t want to pay more taxes, especially to support an under-performing and bloated government monopoly.

    The KNEA and its members don’t want to share in the budgetary sacrifices that the rest of Kansans are being asked to make. In order to make its case, the public school spending lobby will dangle the possibility that Kansas schoolchildren won’t be able to learn anything if cuts are made.

    Thinking people realize, however, that shaving a few hundred dollars off the Wichita school district’s annual spending of over $13,000 per child isn’t going to hurt anything. At least not anything that matters.

  • AFP “Flood the Statehouse Day” bus trip from Wichita

    Some people are asking “what can we do now that the tea party is over?” Here’s an event that’s a good follow-up that will leverage the enthusiasm and energy generated by the tea party protests. This time, it’s at the state level. Here’s the invitation from AFP.

    AFP – KS “Flood the Statehouse” trip from Wichita, April 30, 2009

    Please Join The Wichita Chapter by Chartered Bus FOR AFP Flood the Statehouse in Topeka on April 30, 2009 6:30 – 7:00 a.m. Loading Bus at Lawrence Dumont Stadium Parking Lot 7:00 a.m. Bus departs Wichita for Topeka 9:30 a.m. Arrive Dillon House, 404 SW. 9th Street, Topeka, Ks. (Dillon House is located just west of the Statehouse) 3:30 – 4:00 p.m. Loading Bus at the Capitol (at the Dillon House) 4:00 p.m. Bus departs Topeka for Wichita (est. arrival 6:30 p.m.) Please RSVP for Bus Reservations: John Todd, john@johntodd.net or (316) 312-7335 or Jim Mullins, jim.mullins@afphq.org (785) 354-4237 The Bus trip, AFP Flood the Statehouse event including a box lunch are free; however, if you wish to contribute to AFP, your donation is appreciated. We hope you will join us in Topeka on Thursday, April 30th to flood the halls of the Statehouse as grassroots activists by telling our state legislators not to force the taxpayers to bail them out of a budget situation they created by spending too much of our taxpayer dollars. State government spending increased 48% between 2004 and 2008 alone. That is a staggering clip that AFP warned could not be sustained. Now the legislature must do the right thing and reduce government spending, and not raise taxes on Kansas families and businesses. Our legislature shouldn’t be allowed to tax their way out of a budget problem they created. Please join us on Thursday, April 30, 2009 for AFP Flood the Statehouse in Topeka. Be sure to invite your friends! The Kansas Chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP-KS) is committed to advancing every Kansan’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP-KS is an organization of grassroots citizen leaders who engage in spreading the message of fiscally-responsible government, free market ideals and regulatory restraint to policymakers on the local and state levels.

  • KNEA’s attitude towards Kansas taxpayers

    The Kansas National Education Association — that’s the teachers union — shows again that it has little respect for Kansas taxpayers.

    The issue of Under the Dome for April 17, 2009 reveals this organization’s appetite for tax revenue is large, and they’re always on the prowl for more.

    After last week’s bad news about Kansas revenues, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius reminded legislators they had “left a significant amount of money on the table by not considering revenue adjustments that she had proposed in her budgets.”

    Just look at the perspective of Sebelius and the KNEA. They can’t bring themselves to use the phrases “tax hikes” or “delay tax cuts already signed into law.” Instead, they use the euphemism “revenue adjustments.”

    Also, by not increasing taxes they “leave money on the table.” They don’t view money as belonging to the people of Kansas. They view it as theirs, and they’re being short-sighted when they don’t rake it in.

    KNEA and Sebelius also want Kansas to “decouple” from the federal tax code. That’s because when the federal government cuts taxes, Kansas taxes get cut too because of the coupling. The KNEA reminds us that if Kansas had decoupled, it could have saved $80 million from the effects of last year’s federal stimulus bill.

    There it is again — the attitude the state has first claim on your money. If the state was able to avoid giving its citizens tax cuts, it’s called “saving” by the KNEA.

    KNEA likes to hide behind a unimpeachable motto like “Making Public Schools Great for Every Child.” We need to realize, however, that this teachers union works to keep the public school monopoly on the use of taxpayer funds in education, and they always want more.