Yesterday, shortly after KS-03 Congressman Dennis Moore announced his retirement following this term inCongress, State Representative and Kansas House Appropriations Chairman Kevin Yoder was the first in a line of many Johnson County Republicans to announce his intent to run for the KS-03 seat. According to the Kansas City Star’s Primebuzz, Yoder was the first to announce his intentions after Moore announced his retirement.
Later in the day, Yoder was set to chair the interim meeting of the House Appropriations Committee, which is one of the two legislative interim committees responsible for addressing budget shortfalls in this fiscal year and the next. So, what government program did he first put in the bullseye? Education, of course. Particularly, the consolidation of Kansas school districts and the closing of rural Kansas schools.
Instead of having a full hearing on the matter, though, Yoder decided he should hold a hearing that was lopsided even by Adolf Eichmann’s standards. Did he manage to call state and national experts? Or, did he call Post Audit to testify about the quantification of state dollars to positive impacts on student learning with quality data to back up the findings? How about Alexa Posny, the former state education commissioner and current Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitation Services in the United States Department of Education?
Nope. Yoder, choosing instead to politicize Kansas education for the benefit of his political career and impending run at the KS-03 Congressional seat, called on the minority view from the State Board of Education, Walt Chappell and, a national laughing stock, former Education Commissioner Bob Corkins.
Corkins, as you’ll remember, was a conservative lobbyist who was appointed by the same state board of education (SBOE) that last decided to de-emphasize the teaching of evolution and make a place for creationism in the curriculm of Kansas schools. Corkins, as a one-year commissioner for the SBOE, was a divisive figure among SBOE members and was even more divisive among many state legislators–Democrat and Republican alike–with even Kansas Senate President Steve Morris having strong criticisms about Corkins.
During yesterday’s hearing, Corkins testified that the SBOE should usurp the constitutional role of local boards of education, encouraging the SBOE to perform “site based budgeting and accounting.”
In an interesting turn, however, Corkins was forced to ask questions about both who he was currently employed and, also, who he was representing before the House Appropriations Committee. Corkins, after refusing to answer the question, was guarded by Reps. Peggy Mast (Emporia) and Kasha Kelly (Ark City), who answered that Corkins was working for and representing Kansas Legislative Education and Research, Inc (“KLEAR”). KLEAR is a private think tank composed of 70 conservative Kansas state legislators in order to generate support for positions that have no support in real world science or economics.
Ultimately, Corkins was quick to dismiss his association with KLEAR before the Appropriations Committee. Why? Because Corkins would need to register with the Governmental Ethics Commission in order to appear as a lobbyist, which he has not done. The question remains as to whether Corkins was really appearing as an unregistered lobbyist before the committee, though.
Walt Chappell, a Wichita Democrat who previously ran for the Kansas House against conservative Wichita State Representative Brenda Landwehr, losing in a squeaker in 2006, was elected to the SBOE in 2008. Since his election to that post, Chappell has proven to show a serious misunderstanding of the mechanics of state budget and finance laws, claiming that school districts throughout the state, in the aggregate, have over $1 billion in unspent funds. While this may be technically true, what Chappell also fails to explain is that the vast majority of these funds are already dedicated in special use funds, such as capital outlay, which, under Kansas budget laws, can only be used for capital outlay. His uninformed rhetoric has reached such a level that even the Chairwoman of the SBOE, Janet Waugh, a Kansas City Democrat, had to issue a statement to clarify that the misinformed statements of Chappell didn’t represent the views of the SBOE.
Chappell, yesterday, testified that school districts that previously had relied on a promise of funding for capital outlay projects and have passed bond issues amounting to $800 million since that promise be denied the state’s promised contribution. Clearly, Chappell has no understanding of the principle of promissory estoppel. Chappell also proposed that the Legislature delay implementation of the 2003 Kennedy-Little study, which recommended that the Legislature and SBOE consolidate school districts and, ultimately, close rural schools in Kansas to save money. Delaying implementation would create nearly $300 million in excess funds for the current fiscal year and, according to even the Kansas Watchdog, no savings would be realized in consolidation for at least three years. Chappell proposed those funds be dedicated towards school districts with over 10,000 students. And, as if teachers and students didn’t spend enough hours each day in the classroom, Chappell additionally proposed lengthening school days to a total of six periods, with teachers in classroom until 5:00 pm each evening. Other proposals of Chappell’s included a temporary two year hold on capital construction for schools and forcing parents to pay for their student’s extracurricular activities in varsity sports.
During questioning yesterday, another interesting piece of information was released. It costs the state tens of thousands of dollars in administrative costs for each hearing conducted by the House Appropriations Committee. Instead of being cautious with state dollars and maximizing the impact of the hearings by calling witnesses of differing points of view, Chairman Yoder instead chose to waste state tax dollars by holding a sham hearing, presenting witnesses that were neither experts nor majority view stakeholders. Clearly, Kevin Yoder is more concerned with beefing up his conservative credentials in preparation for a congressional run than he is concerned with solving the state budget crisis with minimal impact for future generations of Kansas school children.
Loading ...