The future of Kansas public schools is on the ballot. So are culture war candidates | Opinion

The Kansas City Star Editorial Board is not making endorsements in the Kansas Board of Education races. But we are highlighting them in hopes that voters will take a closer look at the candidates — and with a clear understanding of the stakes involved.

For more information about the Nov. 5 election, check out The Star’s Voter Guide, a collaboration between The Kansas City Star and the KC Media Collective.

The Kansas State Board of Education is often ignored by voters. There are exceptions.

Most Kansans can remember two decades ago, when the board’s then-conservative majority brought international embarrassment to the state by pushing a proposal to teach creationist “intelligent design” theory in the state’s public schools. The measure was an obvious backdoor method of introducing religious beliefs into classrooms, and just as obviously a rejection of science itself.

“Evolution has been proven false,” one conservative member declared. She was wrong.

At the next election, Kansans — made suddenly, uncomfortably aware of the board’s importance — voted out the conservative majority. Then and now, the state’s voters loved public schools and wanted them to offer the best possible education. The new board reversed course on evolution instruction, then once again receded into the background as it performed the mostly thankless work of guiding K-12 education policy in the state.

The 10-member board is now at another inflection point.

Moderates leaving current board

Four of its current members are conservative Republicans who have campaigned against “wokeness” in public education. Three moderates who served as a counterweight — Deena Horst (R-Salina), Ann Mah (D-Topeka) and Jim McNiece (R-Wichita) — are leaving the board. Five seats overall are up for election in November. Some observers fear a right-wing takeover which could turn the policymaking board into yet another culture war battleground that ill-serves the state’s young people.

We have seen how that turns out.

Two of the seats represent the Kansas City area:

District 2

Melanie Haas, the incumbent Overland Park Democrat, is being challenged by Republican Fred Postlewait and Kiel Corkran, an independent candidate. The district represents school systems in Johnson and Wyandotte counties.

During her term as board chair, Haas has led discussion on policies to limit student cellphone use in the classroom. She is a critic of efforts to fund private schools using taxpayer money. “Kansas has excellent public schools,” she said at a forum hosted by the Johnson County Post.

Postlewait disagrees: He says K-12 education in Kansas is “failing” — he does a deep dive into the state’s faltering test scores in a video on his campaign website — and has decried “social engineering in our public schools.”

Corkran, who ran as a Democrat in the 2022 race for state insurance commissioner, appears not to be campaigning actively for the board seat.

District 4

Kris Meyer, a DeSoto Democrat, and Connie O’Brien, a Tonganoxie Republican, are facing off for the seat left open by Mah’s departure. The district represents northeast Kansas school systems in Coffey, Douglas, Franklin, Jefferson, Johnson, Leavenworth, Lyon, Osage, Shawnee, Wabaunsee and Wyandotte counties.

Meyer, a former teacher and school administrator, says she’s worried that a conservative takeover of the board could reverse public school gains made since former Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget cuts were reversed. “As someone who has witnessed the effects of underfunding firsthand, I can’t stress enough how damaging this could be,” she said in a campaign newsletter.

O’Brien, who previously served in the Kansas House, told a Leavenworth voter forum in September that “most private schools don’t want money from the state.” Taxpayer money should follow students, she said, but “it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to go to a private school.” She does have concerns about instruction, however: “Things are being taught in our education system that have no business being in the education system.”

Three other seats are up for grabs across the state:

District 6

Beryl Ann New, a Topeka Democrat, and Bruce Schultz, a Wamego Republican, are competing for Horst’s open seat. The district represents east-central Kansas school systems in Chase, Coffee, Dickinson, Douglas, Geary, Greenwood, Jefferson, Lyon, Marion, Morris, Pottawatomie, Riley, Shawnee and Wabaunsee counties.

District 8

Betty Arnold, the incumbent Wichita Democrat, is being challenged by Jason Carmichael, a Wichita Republican. The district represents south-central Kansas school systems in Butler and Sedgwick counties.

District 10

There are three candidates in the race for McNiece’s old seat: Wichita Democrat Jeffrey Jarman, Garden Plain Republican Debby Potter and Wichita independent Kent Rowe. The district represents south-central Kansas school systems in Barber, Butler, Chautauqua, Cowley, Harper, Sedgwick and Sumner counties.

The Kansas State Board of Education often goes unnoticed, both by voters and the media, in the hurly-burly of state politics. It would be a mistake to overlook these races this fall. The future of our schools — and the young Kansans they educate — is at stake.

The editorial board of our sister paper The Wichita Eagle endorsed Kansas school board races in District 8 and 10 here.