Today, we’re publishing candidates’ responses to the following question:
Kansas lawmakers in recent years have passed legislation that allows for open enrollment in public schools, as well as pushed measures that would expand a system of tax credits for families who send their children to private schools. Supporters of such moves say they give more freedom to families in making decisions about their child’s education. Opponents see them as threats that place new and unfair burdens on public schools. Where do you stand on such measures? Do you support moves like open enrollment and school vouchers? Why or why not?
Below are the answers the Post received from candidates on the issue:
District 8
Beneé Hudson (Republican)
Kansans deserve an education system worthy of their tax dollars and meets the needs of all Kansas families. Spending is not the problem. We have never invested at the level of spending today and yet, since long before the pandemic, educational outcomes have been declining or, at best, flat.
The problem is the funding is fully burdened with countless strings, administrative overburden, expensive programs with minimal return on investment, and outsourcing of meaningful classroom instruction to technology platforms with lackluster (if any) demonstrated results on core skills.
Further, core skills have been de-prioritized to the bottom of an ever-growing list of other programs seeking to develop the “whole child” in a school environment. The educational needs of Kansans are diverse and there is no one-size-fits-all school model, especially in the SPED space. Those closest to students must know what is needed to improve learning in their school and have the ability to speak freely about and implement changes that would make a difference and not be threatened when deficiencies are exposed.
Our state government’s exhaustive efforts through the legislature and KSDE to control the state Board of Education and local school administrators through funding mandates and irrelevant accreditation standards is actually killing our schools – both public and private. As long as we insist on suffocating the ingenuity, creativity, and ability of our teachers with overbearing administrative nonsense, we can expect to see more Kansas families demanding greater choices in educational options for their children and re-purposing of their tax dollars that fund a broken education system.
Cindy Holscher (Democratic, incumbent)
Taxpayer funds belong in public schools. Yet, there is a very sizable faction in the legislature pushing for vouchers and other gimmicks that would divert funding to private (mostly religious) entities.
The lobbyists who push vouchers for dark money organizations like to claim we need to “help children escape failing schools.” But that’s just a marketing pitch. The reality is vouchers benefit the wealthy with approx. 70% of such programs ending up going to wealthy families with children already enrolled in private school. It’s a scam pushed by DeVos, the Koch network and other extremists.
What we’ve seen happen in other states (Arkansas, Iowa, OK) is once large scale voucher programs are implemented, next comes legislation to remove protections against child labor. I want you to think about that – if kids in states with voucher programs can’t afford to go to private schools or have access to public schools, their option is to go work in factories. That is not the America I envisioned – it’s backwards and shameful.
With the 2024 elections, it is imperative that Kansans elect legislators who support our public schools. The Supreme Court no longer has the role to oversee funding of our educational institutions, and in the coming term legislators will make the determination regarding what “fully funded” means. Sadly, some of our Senators and Representatives would set that rate at 50% of current funding levels. What would that do to our schools and our economy? That would likely destroy both.
