By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Opponents of a measure that would consolidate school districts have expressed their opinions in a Kansas House committee meeting.
House Bill 2504 would require 98 of Kansas’ 105 counties to have one unified school district per county.
The three area lawmakers who participated in this week’s Hays Area Chamber of Commerce legislative coffee believe the issue will never come to the House floor.
“I don’t think we want this much contention on this kind of an issue in a year where we’re working to fill a budget hole,” said Rep. Sue Boldra, R-Hays. “Reasonable people, and especially people in education and people in rural Kansas, understand that these kinds of things aren’t going to work.”
“There aren’t enough hours in the day to pass this,” quipped Sen. Ralph Ostmeyer, R-Grinnell. “I know a lot of rural legislators are going to fight that.”
Tom Benoit, a Palco USD 269 board member and a member of a coalition of rural districts called Schools for Quality Education, said at Wednesday’s House committee meeting in Topeka that any consolidation should be local patrons’ decision.
Rep. Ken Rahjes, R-Agra, a former school board member, agrees. In Hays Saturday, he said he’s gotten a lot of email from concerned teachers, school board members and others.
“We do need to have those conversations about (improving) education,” Rahjes insisted.
“But it still goes back to local control. If there’s an issue, go to your local school board. If you’re concerned taxes are too high, they’re spending too much, you have to talk to them, instead of banging through the media or sending out letters instead of truly having a conversation.
“We can’t just say ‘so and so was wrong and so and so was right.’ There’s probably somewhere in the middle where we’re both probably right. That’s one of the things that is missing today and I guess I can say that because I’m the new guy.
“I haven’t been jaded enough to say ‘no, I don’t agree with you so I’m not going to talk to you about anything.’ How in the world do you get anything done that way? That’s not governing, that’s not legislating. That’s playing…games and we really can’t do that any more.
“This is an election year so there are a lot of these things that are stoking the fires,” Rahjes continued. “Find out who’s introducing the bills and why. Is it because someone wants to be in the media? Is it because they’re trying to do something? Are they trying hard to look better in the eyes of certain people?”
In Ellis County, the proposed realignment would move Ellis USD 388 and Victoria USD 432 into Hays USD 489.
The bill’s author, Rep. John Bradford, (R-Lansing) says Kansas residents are receiving incorrect information, making them believe the bill would close schools. Bradford defended his bill, saying it wouldn’t result what patrons of rural and small districts fear. He says it would not affect teachers, sell school buses, change school district boundaries, kill any school mascots, affect any students or football teams and wouldn’t increase the time students ride school buses.
Kansas’ seven most populous counties would be allowed to have multiple districts if each has more than 1,500 students.