Parental Rights Bill Passes Kansas Senate
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) — Kansas lawmakers have advanced a bill that allows parents to remove their child from any classroom lesson or activity the parents view as inappropriate. The Kansas Senate voted 23-17 to pass the bill, which is a weaker version of the “Parents’ Bill of Rights” measure the governor vetoed last year. That bill would have allowed parents to challenge content in a course and stop it from being taught altogether rather than simply removing their own child from the class. Supporters say this year’s version is not a bill of rights, but it outlines in state law that parents have a right to direct the education of their children. Opponents say parents can already ask for their child to be pulled from an assignment they disagree with. Democratic Senator Dinah Sykes says the proposed law would put more pressure on overworked teachers and staff. “It's an unnecessary burden on our teachers, administrators,” Sykes said. “All of our education advocates oppose mandates for bureaucratic tasks that take time and effort from the classroom.” The bill now heads to a conference committee, where members of both chambers will work out differences in their versions of the measure.
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Kansas Bill Would Ban Transgender Women from Sports Teams, Bathrooms and Shelters
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) — A bill on its way to Governor Laura Kelly’s desk legally defines men and women as their gender assigned at birth. The bill would bar transgender women from entering women’s bathrooms, playing on women’s or girl’s sports teams or staying at domestic violence shelters in Kansas. Supporters call the measure the “Women’s Bill of Rights” but Democratic Representative Lindsay Vaughn says the bill is an attack on transgender people and she says the name is misleading. “It does nothing to protect women's rights, but instead weaponizes the rhetoric of rights to erase protections for trans and non-binary people.” Vaughn says the bill violates the rights of transgender people by defining them as a gender that is not consistent with their identity. Republican Representative Brenda Landwehr supports the plan and says it is meant to protect a woman’s right to feel safe in areas designated for them. “I cannot go into a woman's bathroom and know that a male will not walk into that bathroom,” Landwehr said. “What about my rights?” Governor Kelly has vetoed bills restricting transgender rights in the past. The bill passed in both the House and Senate with one vote less than would be needed for the Legislature to override a veto.
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Taxes, Trans Rights, Abortion Hot Topics as Kansas Deadline Looms
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers are headed Monday into four intense days ahead of an annual “Drop Dead Day” deadline that could see them wrap up their work on rolling back transgender rights, imposing new abortion restrictions and cutting taxes.
Most policy bills and the bulk of the next state budget are supposed to clear the Republican-controlled Legislature by the close of business Thursday. Lawmakers then plan to take their annual spring break to give Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly time to sign or veto the bills they've approved before they reconvene April 26 to finish the last of their business for the year.
While lawmakers often have a few big bills that they can't finish by Drop Dead Day, their goal is to clear their agenda as much as possible so that the late-April wrapup lasts a week or less and focuses on completing the budget and possibly overriding vetoes.
Here's a look at where major issues stand.
TRANSGENDER RIGHTS
The House has until Thursday to try to override Kelly's veto of a bill that would ban transgender athletes from girls' and women's school and club sports, starting in kindergarten.
Supporters need a two-thirds majority, 84 of 125 votes, and GOP leaders expect the vote to be close enough that they have been waiting until no more than one of the 85 Republicans is absent. If the House votes to override, a vote could follow quickly in the Senate, where an override appears likely.
Both chambers have passed versions of a bill to prevent transgender people from using restrooms, locker rooms and other facilities in line with their current gender identifies and to block them from changing their driver's licenses to reflect their current identities. Senators passed it first and must decide whether to accept House changes or demand negotiations.
A bill aimed at ending gender-affirming care for minors has passed the Senate but has not cleared a committee in the House. However, the Legislature's rules would allow senators and House members negotiating on the bathroom bill or another health measure to slip in language on gender-affirming care.
During a recent rally at the Statehouse, Kelly told LGBTQ-rights advocates and LGBTQ youth, “I will continue to stand up for you, protect your rights and call out and condemn any speech or behavior or veto any bill that aims to harm or discriminate against you.”
ABORTION RESTRICTIONS
Republican lawmakers are pushing for new anti-abortion laws, though their options were limited after voters in August decisively affirmed that the state constitution protects abortion rights.
Both chambers have approved a version of a bill dealing with live births during abortion procedures, similar to a proposed law that Montana voters rejected in November. It would require a doctor to immediately transport a newborn to a hospital, even if the doctor expected it to die quickly.
The House approved the measure first and must consider Senate amendments. The two chambers' differences are minor, so the House could approve the Senate version to send it to Kelly.
Yet the House also could demand negotiations with the Senate because of a second anti-abortion bill.
It's a House-passed bill to require abortion providers to tell patients that they might be able to reverse a medication abortion after taking the first of the usual two drugs, something experts dispute. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology says there is no scientific evidence that the “reversal” method, involving using the hormone progesterone in place of the second abortion medication, is safe or effective.
While the Senate hasn't considered the measure, it has moved quickly in the past on anti-abortion measures. But passage could go even more quickly if lawmakers placed the “reversal” language into the bill on live births during negotiations.
Kelly is a strong abortion rights supporter and is expected to veto both proposals. She vetoed a version of the medication “reversal” bill in 2019.
TAX CUTS
The state began the year flush with bulging revenues and that prompted high, bipartisan interest in cutting taxes. Tax cuts appear likely to top $1.4 billion over three years.
Kelly and other Democrats want to immediately eliminate the state's sales tax on groceries, now 4% and set to go to zero at the start of 2025. The House has a plan to go to zero on July 1, while the Senate would wait until Jan. 1, 2024.
The governor also proposed exempting more of retirees' Social Security income from state income taxes, but the Senate voted to zero them out.
Republicans are pushing to collapse the state's three individual income tax brackets into one. The House's proposal is a tax rate of 5.25%, while the Senate's plan is a rate of 4.75%. The top rate now is 5.7%.
EDUCATION POLICY
Republicans continue to pursue “school choice” proposals despite Kelly's lack of enthusiasm for them. But the House and Senate are far apart on a bill, and they're negotiating over the final version.
The Senate approved an expansion of an existing program that gives an income tax credit to people and companies donating to scholarship funds that help at-risk students leave public schools for private ones. The House narrowly approved a bill that would move state education dollars into savings accounts for parents who want private or home schooling for their children.
The House and Senate also are negotiating over the final version of a bill that would allow parents of public school students to object to a lesson or activity that “impairs the parent’s sincerely held beliefs, values or principles,” and to remove the student from the classroom.
Both the separate House and Senate versions of the next annual state budget include a provision barring higher education institutions from requiring job applicants to express support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs or to base hiring decisions on a candidate's views on the subject.
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ACA Ruling Could Affect Maternity Care and HIV Prevention
TOPEKA, Kan. (KNS) — Health care policy experts say a federal court ruling could impact Kansans’ access to some preventative health services during pregnancy. Some Kansas doctors also worry that the measure would hinder efforts to prevent of HIV infection. A federal judge in Texas has ruled that private insurers no longer have to provide free screenings for certain pregnancy complications. One of those complications is preeclampsia. It’s one of the leading causes of maternal deaths and it disproportionately affects Black women. The bill would also allow insurance companies to charge patients for some preventative services that were previously free. That includes an HIV-prevention drug called PrEP, which can cost as much as $2,000 per month. Private insurers cover more than 70% of Kansans and doctors worry that the high retail price will make the medication unaffordable for many Kansans. The Biden administration is expected to appeal the ruling.
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Kobach Backing Bill to Outlaw Land Ownership by Foreign Adversaries
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) — Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is urging state lawmakers to make it illegal for foreign “adversaries” to own land in Kansas. The bill would prohibit persons or corporations controlled by foreign countries deemed hostile to the United States from owning land in Kansas. Countries targeted by the bill include Iran, Russia, and China. Kobach says China’s efforts to acquire more U.S. farmland over the last decade constitute an especially serious threat to the nation’s security and its food supply. While China has recently become more aggressive in its land purchases, it still controls less than one percent of all foreign-owned land in the U.S. Foreign countries now own or lease about 40 million acres of U.S. land, including 1.2 million acres in Kansas. All but a fraction of that acreage is controlled by Canada and by European countries. Opponents of the Kansas bill say, foreign land ownership is an issue for the federal government, not state lawmakers.
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Bill Lowering Child Care Regulations Passes State Senate
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Child care regulations would be lowered in Kansas under a bill that has won Senate approval and created a debate over how best to address a shortage of day care spots without compromising safety. The 21 to 17 vote Thursday sends the measure, backed by the parents of two young children, to the Kansas House. The bill would roll back some of the changes put in place under a law named after Lexie Engelman, a 13-month-old child who suffered fatal injuries in a Johnson County day care in 2004. It would decrease training and continuing education requirements from teachers and staff in child care facilities while increasing the child-to-adult maximum ratio requirement for facilities. The state needs more than 85,000 new child care slots to meet existing demand, according to Child Care Aware of Kansas, a chapter of a national organization aimed at promoting quality child care. Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, a Democrat, has prioritized child care in her second term and announced a task force earlier this year to study the child care system in Kansas. Her office said in a statement she would evaluate the legislation if it reaches her desk.
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Kansas State Basketball Coach Tang Wins Naismith Award
MANHATTAN, Kan. (WIBW) - Kansas State University’s Men’s Basketball Head Coach Jerome Tang has been named the Naismith Coach of the Year. Tang was officially named winner of the Werner Ladder Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year Sunday as the men’s NCAA Final Four tournament continued in Houston, Texas. Tang was chosen from a field of finalists that included Purdue’s Matt Painter, Houston’s Kelvin Sampson and Marquette’s Shaka Smart. WIBW TV reports that Tang becomes the first K-State head coach to earn the title. He joins three coaches from the University of Kansas who have won the award: Larry Brown in 1988, Roy Williams in 1997 and Bill Self in 2012. Tang was chosen as the 25th head men’s basketball coach at Kansas State in March 2022. He previously served as assistant head coach at Baylor’s from 2003 to 2022.
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Wabaunsee County Woman Killed in UTV Crash
McFARLAND, Kan. (WIBW) – A woman was killed Sunday night in an UTV crash in Wabaunsee County about a mile southwest of McFarland. 23-year-old Ashley M. Seidl of Alma died in the crash just after 6:00 Sunday evening. The Kansas Highway Patrol says a 2021 Polaris utility terrain vehicle failed to negotiate a curve before it overturned ejecting the passenger. The patrol said Seidl was not wearing a seat belt. WIBW reports that 26-year-old Lester R. Johnson of Alma was the driver of the UTV. Johnson was transported to Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka with minor injuries. McFarland is 35 miles west of Topeka.
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KU Jayhawks Women’s Team Beats Columbia to Win WNIT Title
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KPR)- The Kansas Jayhawks women's basketball team won the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) championship title Saturday with a 65-59 win over Columbia. With an official crowd of 11,707 fans in Allen Fieldhouse, the Jayhawks used their home court advantage to power them to victory. KU used an 18-3 run to close out the third quarter to create breathing room and eventually earn the win over the Lions. Taiyanna Jackson collected her fifth double-double of the WNIT and 23rd of the season with 17 points and a career-high tying 21 rebounds. Zakiyah Franklin led Kansas with 19 points with a perfect 9-of-9 shooting from the charity stripe, adding a block and two steals to her night. Chandler Prater was one point shy of a double-double with nine points, 11 rebounds and four steals in an impressive defensive effort. The win not only secured KU’s first WNIT championship title, but also gave Kansas 25 wins on the season as the Jayhawks' final record clocked in at 25-12.
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This summary of area news is curated by KPR news staffers, including J. Schafer, Laura Lorson, Tom Parkinson and Kaye McIntyre. Our headlines are generally posted by 10 am weekdays and updated throughout the day. These ad-free headlines are made possible by KPR members. Become one today. And follow KPR News on Twitter.