By Sam Zeff

It’s getting harder to fill teaching positions in Kansas, especially in rural and urban districts.

In a report released in August, KSDE talked about the challenges the state faces to make sure there is a reliable source of teachers in the future and how to maintain a veteran teaching corps. “Kansas isn’t experiencing a greying of the profession but actually a greening,” said the report.

But there’s a new program at Kansas State University to help fill the need.

It used to be pretty easy to at fill open jobs for elementary teachers in Kansas.

But the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) says even that’s getting harder.

“While we generally don’t think that there’s a shortage of elementary teachers, in point of fact, there is in Kansas and that need is also growing nationwide,” says K-State College of Education Professor Thomas Vontz.

So Kansas State developed a one year, online program so those with an undergraduate degree can get a masters in elementary teaching.

Even though its online, all students will start student teaching in January.

K-State says it developed the program this year because lots of college graduates were looking to change careers.

“The college frequently receives inquiries from college graduates who want to become teachers but there has been no path available to them, other than the bachelor degree in education,” College of Education Dean Debbie Mercer said in a statement.

Vontz says many of his student see teaching as a way to give back. “You can make a tremendous difference on a kid. You can establish habits as well as ideas that will last a lifetime.”

In all, Vontz says, the initial class had 49 students, several in other states.

For people willing to spend a year teaching within a 50-mile radius around Dodge City, Garden City, Great Bend, Liberal, Wichita, Topeka or Kansas City there’s financial help.

About half of the initial class was eligible for $6,000 fellowships from the Board of Regents, Vontz says.

Sam Zeff covers education  and is co-host of the political podcast Statehouse Blend Kansas. Follow him on Twitter @samzeff.

NEOSHO COUNTY – One person died and three injured in an accident just before 3p.m. on Friday in Neosho County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Chevy Colorado driven by Trez Caleb Martinez, 17, Chanute, was northbound on U.S. 169 seven miles south of Chanute.

The vehicle rear-ended a 2007 Pontiac Vibe driven by Lee L. Heisz, 47, Portage, WI., that was stopped behind a 2005 Chevy 3500 driven by Chase Patrick Coomes, 17, Erie, that was stopped in the northbound lane of U.S. 169 awaiting to make a left turn onto 130th road.

The collision pushed the Pontiac into the ditch.

Heisz was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Frontier Forensics.

A passenger in the Pontiac Heisz, Carol Lynn Heisz, 46, Portage, WI., was transported to Freeman Health System.

Martinez and Coomes were transported to Neosho Memorial Hospital.

Lee Heisz was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

TOPEKA – As required by a federal court order, the Department of Defense Friday released another round of documents related to its plans to close the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and relocate detainees to the U.S. mainland, according to Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

The latest batch of documents – the fourth group released since Schmidt filed a federal lawsuit in July to obtain them – shed little new light on the federal administration’s plans to relocate detainees to the U.S. mainland, possibly to Fort Leavenworth. The 52 pages of documents released today are almost completely redacted except for a few page headings. The visible headings show that the documents relate to matters such as “Previous CONUS Sites Considered for DoD Detention Operations”, “One-Time Costs for Disposition of [redacted] Detainees Held at GTMO”, and “Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) Recurring Costs [redacted] Detainees Disposition of Detainees Held at GTMO.”

Notably, the documents show that cost estimates for relocating detainees were dated as recently as December 2015.

“We remain committed to preventing the illegal relocation of detainees to Fort Leavenworth in the waning days of the Obama Administration,” Schmidt said. “Although this batch of heavily redacted documents reveals little new substantive information, it once again confirms that the administration was actively planning for relocating detainees to the U.S. mainland as recently at one year ago. We will maintain heightened vigilance at least through the presidential transition on January 20.”

Schmidt’s lawsuit that is compelling release of the planning documents is State of Kansas, ex rel. Derek Schmidt v. United States Department of Defense, in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas, Case No. 16-cv-04127. The documents released today, along with documents previously released pursuant to court order, are available at http://bit.ly/2f7Ty8Z.

ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Records obtained by The Associated Press show that a Mexican national accused of raping a 13-year-old girl on a Greyhound bus in Kansas had been deported 10 times and voluntarily removed from the U.S. nine other times since 2003.

Three U.S. Republican senators demanded this month in a letter that the Department of Homeland Security provide immigration records for 38-year-old Tomas Martinez-Maldonado.

That man is charged with felony rape in the alleged Sept. 27 attack aboard a bus in Geary County in north-central Kansas, where he is now in jail.

Defense attorney Lisa Hamer declined to comment. David Trevino, Martinez-Maldonado’s immigration attorney, said that many immigrants have multiple entries without legal permission because they have family members in the U.S.

A status hearing is set for Jan. 10.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a new policy designed to allow farmers to take land out of a conservation program early if it is to be transferred to the next generation of farmers.

Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary Lanon Baccam says beginning Jan. 9, the USDA will offer an early termination opportunity for certain Conservation Reserve Program contracts.

Baccam made the announcement at the Joe Dunn farm in central Iowa near Carlisle. Dunn is the father-in-law to Iowa native and former U.S. Marine Aaron White, who with his wife, are prospective next generation farmers.

Baccam says the chance to give young farmers a better opportunity to succeed makes perfect sense.

Normally, early termination of a CRP contract requires repayment of all previous payments plus interest. The new policy waives this repayment if the land is transferred to a beginning farmer or rancher.