Three Protestant leaders visited local schools to show support for education, and then later decried the tone of debate about illegal immigration.

“We need to keep education before us as a priority,” said Bishop Gerald Mansholt, of the Central States Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Mansholt, Kansas-area Bishop Scott Jameson Jones of the United Methodist Church and the Right Rev. Dean Wolfe, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, visited Bishop Seabury Academy in Lawrence and Perry Elementary School in Perry.

The visits were inspiring, Mansholt said.

“I found myself giving thanks to God for the teachers and students,” he said.

The three church leaders represent more than 225,000 Kansas members. They issued a letter calling on Kansans to make sure elected officials provide the needed funding for education.

They recently have joined forces to counter efforts by other churches that have focused on issues such as gay marriage.

On another topic, the three bishops said they were troubled by the debate about illegal immigration.

Jones said he thought some of the rhetoric against immigrants had an undercurrent of prejudice.

He said he understood people were frustrated by the government’s inability to control immigration, but he noted that most Americans are descendants of immigrants, and that Christianity teaches compassion for immigrants.