Free advice for Kansas politicians as the 2024 session begins: Follow your own laws for a change

The Kansas Legislature gathers today in Topeka, 125 representatives and 40 senators representing 2.9 million people, wielding the mighty power of state law to reward the righteous and punish the wicked.

Unless, of course, that law applies to politicians.

State statute requires that the government reimburse 92% of school districts’ extra special education costs. That statute hails from the same Legislature that steadfastly refuses to legalize cannabis and targets transgender kids.

We’re expected to follow those laws. They represent officials’ priorities, skewed though they may be. But representatives and senators have decided to ignore the special education one.

They only pay 69%.

You can dig into the statute here. While the language explaining how to calculate costs might be complicated, this part isn’t: “The computed amount is the amount of state aid for the provision of special education and related services aid a school district is entitled to receive for the ensuing school year.”

As Kansas Reflector’s Tim Carpenter and Rachel Mipro made clear last week, however, legislative bigwigs have little interest in that text. Rep. Kristey Williams and Sen. Renee Erickson both panned the idea of convening a task force to look at special ed funding. They suggested, in the reporters’ words, that the “remedy suggested by education advocacy groups was too simplistic.”

“We do not need a special education task force meeting to consider their position,” said Erickson, a Wichita Republican. “We have their input, which is just more money. We don’t need a task force to convene to discuss that part.”

Williams, an Augusta Republican, panned the idea of a task force and called its Friday meeting only after other members pushed her to do so. (The task force, perhaps unsurprisingly, called for full funding.) She wants lawmakers to rewrite the special education rules altogether.

Rather than follow a law that helps Kansas kids, those in power would rather change it.

Let’s all sit with that thought for a minute.

This might be a good place to note that the Legislature didn’t fully fund K-12 schools in Kansas until judges forced the issue. That is, until judges forced them to follow the state constitution.

 

Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden speaks during a June 20, 2022, forum on election security in Olathe. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

Ballot destruction law

State statute also requires that ballots from state and national elections be destroyed after 22 months.

It’s right there, in statute: “The county election officer shall preserve all county, city, school district and township ballots for six months and all state and national ballots for 22 months. At the expiration of such time, the county election officer shall destroy them without previously opening any of the envelopes, in the presence of two electors of approved integrity and good repute, members of the two leading political parties.”

Yet Attorney General Kris Kobach, he of continuing legal education classes, has asked Johnson County to retain its ballots as Sheriff Calvin Hayden conducts a bogus investigation into nonexistent election fraud. That’s according to reporting from the Kansas City Star’s Katie Bernard.

Yes, the law makes an allowance ballot preservation in case an election is being contested, but more than three years have passed since the 2020 election. As folks repeatedly try to tell a certain ex-president, the 2020 election is over. Secretary of State Scott Schwab certainly thinks so; he’s told county it has a legal duty to destroy the ballots.

Does Kobach think the law only applies when it helps rather than hinders his pet political projects?

I might also note this Reflector headline from Dec. 31, 2022: “Kobach’s U.S. Senate campaign, We Build the Wall hit by $30,000 fine for campaign law violations.” I’m not sure what made me think of it in this context.

Listen: Lawmakers pass laws. It’s right there in their name. The state attorney general is our chief law enforcement official.

I don’t think it’s too much to ask that if you pass and enforce laws, you do your very best to follow them. Otherwise, you send the message that government’s power exists only to further your own personal agenda and lust for power, not the good of those people you represent.

Kids receiving special education services at school don’t travel to the majestic Statehouse in Topeka to cast votes. Senators and representatives do. These kids deserve legislators who care about their futures. For that matter, Kansans bamboozled by election deniers deserve straight talk and strict adherence to the law, not politicians feeding them a line.

If you’re a Kansan caught with marijuana or a transgender high schooler who wants to play sports, you will face consequences.

If you’re a lawmaker neglecting special ed? Eh.

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.

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