Brownback discusses House Bill implications

Gov. Sam Brownback said he is considering vetoing legislation this legislative session that would provide an additional $150 million for kindergarten through 12th grade education.

This comes after representatives debated and re-allotted educational funding.

University officials were not the only ones greeting Brownback to WSU; protesters, including retired teachers, stood outside the Marcus Welcome Center demanding Brownback veto House Bill 2506.

He talked about the bill at a stop Monday at Wichita State during his annual tour of Kansas’s universities this week to meet with university officials.

Brownback said he visited WSU at this time last year and that he was urging the Kansas legislature to have stable funding for higher education in the state.

“The legislature did provide stable funding for community colleges, technical schools, but there was a cut in higher education funding,”

Brownback said. “Then in the summer, the legislature did a tour around a number of the different facilities around the state of Kansas. Wichita State was one of them. A number of people came back very impressed and those impressive results that they put in the budget this year.”

A total of $2 million will pay for technology innovation as part of WSU President John Bardo’s plan for an “Innovation Campus.”

However, he also discussed concerns about the bill, House Bill 2506, taking away state-mandated tenure from teachers in K-12.

Brownback said vetoing the bill would have severe consequences for Kansas teachers.

“If we do that, there will be layoff notices that go out to teachers because of the nature of what the court ruled, saying that the local option budget, which is a substantial bit of the funding, will no longer be allowed to be in the law,” as of July 1, Brownback said. “That is a practical issue that’s a very difficult hurdle.”

Brownback said he will consider all options regarding the bill, but said he wants people to understand the implications that will result if a veto occurs.

Brownback also sent mixed messages on his tour. While he claimed he might veto the bill when he spoke at WSU, he made a different statement at Emporia State University hours earlier. In an audio clip recorded by Emporia-based KVOE radio, the governor said, “Emporia State, when I sign the budge, and I will, will receive $572,000, over $572,000, in salary cap restoration for this fiscal year.”

Because the bill was put on Brownback’s desk Monday, he has 10 days from then to sign or veto it. He said he will not take the full 10 days to decide because it is a time sensitive issue and a number of issues are involved.

“I do want to take adequate time to take a look at all the provisions in it and then deal with being able to have some sensibility about the provisions in it, what its nature will be in its index,” Brownback said.

In addition, concerned teachers have contacted Brownback regarding the bill.

“Our office has been contacted by a number of teachers very concerned about this,” he said. “And that’s why another piece of it is we want to understand the legal implications of what’s here.”

Brownback stressed that as the weekend of the bill debate went on, different pieces of the eventual bill jumped back and forth to get a majority vote in both houses. He said it was tough to get done, because there would have been substantial problems had it not passed.

“The good piece is that the funding is there to be able to do this, and that’s no small task,” Brownback said. “$150 million more in state funding in the K-12, when we’ve been through the fiscal situation we have, it’s been challenging, but we’re in a position to be able to do it.”

Brownback served as a U.S. Senator from 1996 to 2011 before being elected Governor and noted the differences.

“One of the things I love about Topeka versus Washington, it’s at the end of the day, you have to do something,” Brownback said. “Here you had a court order — it was on equalization — I agree with that. Every student in Kansas should be able to get a quality education, and the state needs to equalize for that.”