How shopping for school supplies led me to fight for Kansas families | Opinion
It was one of those brutally hot August mornings Kansas is famous for — the kind where the air is heavy before you’ve even eaten breakfast. I was running around my house, lunchboxes in one hand, hairbrush in the other, trying to get my three kids out the door in time for their first day of school. My oldest daughter’s backpack was bigger than she was, filled with all the exciting school supplies she just had to have for her new adventure.
When I dropped my daughter off at Pleasant Ridge Elementary, I paused for a moment as she disappeared behind the school doors. I felt a mix of pride, nostalgia and hope for the future she would build. A future I felt confident that our public schools would help her be ready to face.
What I didn’t know then was that one day I would be fighting tooth and nail to prevent those very schools from falling apart.
In 2011, Sam Brownback became governor of Kansas. His so-called “tax experiment” slashed state income taxes, promising economic growth that never came. Instead, it blew a huge hole in our state budget. Public schools got the brunt of it. Our kids lost resources; staff positions were eliminated and schools were working on a shoestring budget. Teachers were leaving the profession altogether, not because they didn’t love what they did, but because they couldn’t afford to pay their bills.
It really hit home when I was wandering Target one afternoon with my daughter and she pointed out her teacher. I turned around to see her down the aisle, wearing a red shirt and stocking shelves. This was the same teacher who had inspired my daughter to be curious, to be confident, to believe in herself. My daughter asked me why she was working there and I had to tell her the truth — that Brownback’s policies were making it really hard for teachers — and some like her had to work a second job just to keep their own families afloat.
It was gut-wrenching. The Brownback experiment wasn’t simply an economic failure — it was a moral one. It was stealing from our kids and robbing our dedicated educators of their dignity.
That day in Target, my daughter looked at me and said, “Mom, you go fix that!” It was the moment I decided I couldn’t just be a parent watching from the sidelines. I needed to fight for my kids, and for every Kansas kid. So I ran for the state Legislature.
Once elected, I hit the ground running. I worked across the aisle, helped found the Bipartisan Women’s Caucus and fought tirelessly to restore funding to our schools. But the damage from Brownback’s experiment didn’t vanish instantly. Twice, I walked from Johnson County to Topeka to raise awareness about the damage done to our schools. I helped start the Freedom to Learn PAC, dedicated to electing candidates who would stand up for public education and protect the future of our children. And even by 2022, the teacher shortage was still so severe that I got my substitute teaching license, working five days a week when the Legislature wasn’t in session.
It took years of hearings, budget fights and building alliances, but we did it. We ended the Brownback experiment and started to rebuild what he had destroyed.
Every August, as yellow school buses drive through my neighborhood, I’m reminded of that moment in Target. Of how quickly our leaders can neglect our kids. Of how important it is to step up when no one else will. Today, with my kids off at college, I still feel that same sense of responsibility. Because Kansas kids — all of them — deserve a future that is fully funded, fully supported and fully protected.
And I’ll keep fighting for that, every single day.
Cindy Holscher is a mom, farmer’s daughter, state senator and candidate for Kansas governor.
This story was originally published August 22, 2025 at 5:07 AM.