Not conservative enough? Right-wing Republicans target Kansas Board of Education maps
The Kansas Legislature’s effort to strangle representative government continues, with the education of the state’s children at risk.
Quietly this week, statehouse Republicans passed a map that redraws districts for the 10-member Kansas Board of Education. The KBOE sets broad policy for K-12 schools, and is — and should be — independent of the Legislature and the governor.
The map is an unfortunate gerrymander, and Gov. Laura Kelly should veto it. If that fails, a lawsuit should follow.
The existing map generally joins communities with similar interests and politics. The current 1st District, for example, includes Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties, and part of rural Douglas County. Janet Waugh, a veteran of the board, is its representative.
The 2nd District is roughly half of Johnson County, starting in Shawnee and curving through Roeland Park south through Leawood and Overland Park.
The map has yielded a moderate, centrist, focused state Board of Education. Nonsense debates over creationism standards have receded. All Kansas families benefit from this approach.
Naturally, right-wing Republicans want to destroy it. They’ve adopted a map that splits Wyandotte County into three districts, including one district that links the western part of the county with residents south of Topeka.
Republicans make no attempt to disguise the partisan motives of the map. The current board of education is conservative, but apparently not conservative enough.
“I’d love to have more conservatives run (for the board),” said Senate President Ty Masterson, “because you’re starting to see, particularly after COVID, how important education is and how important that board is in the process.”
Most Kansans understood the importance of education long before the pandemic, of course. They have resisted efforts to politicize the KBOE, and they should resist them now.
An independent, elected state board of education can focus on issues affecting schools, and ignore the “critical race theory”/transgender athlete/parents’ bill of rights noise coming from Masterson and his pals. That makes schools better.
But make no mistake: The board of education map is merely a reflection of the Kansas GOP’s bigger project, which is rigging the system to get from redistricting what they can’t get from voters.
Masterson knows fair maps would enable Kansans to elect centrist, moderate officeholders. That’s the last thing he wants. The goal is to dismantle true representation and replace it with right-wingers beholden to no one except each other.
The Kansas GOP passed a distorted congressional map, which is now in court; if the Kansas Board of Education map prevails, the courts are the likely next stop as well.
We hope the courts discard the map. Then lawmakers can draw a new one without strange gerrymanders that split one of the state’s most diverse counties into three parts.
Kansans deserve honest government. Once again, the Legislature has failed that test.