Heard on the Hill: More Kansas state legislators lack college experience than other states; all kinds of Jayhawks are at European-based ESPN America; KU researcher gets mention in Kansas economy story

Your daily dose of news, notes and links from around Kansas University.

• I saw some interesting data reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the education level of state legislators.

In Kansas, the Chronicle found that 16 percent of state legislators had no college education at all, making Kansas the state with the third-highest percentage of legislators with no college nationally.

But, as the story pointed out, is that really a problem? After all, the 16 percent of legislators with no college in the state might reflect the fact that 40 percent of all Kansas residents have no college education at all.

And government is supposed to be reflective of the people, right?

On the other hand, isn’t it a good idea to have the people writing our laws be as knowledgeable as possible?

It’s an interesting discussion to have, to be sure.

And, in case you’re wondering, 29 state legislators reported attending KU, as opposed to 24 for Kansas State, 16 for Wichita State, 10 for Fort Hays State, nine for Emporia State and five for Pittsburg State.

• I heard from Andrew Joseph, the KU journalism student whose ESPN America blog I linked to a few posts back.

He told me that not only does he have an internship at the London-based network, so too does Laura Thomas, a fellow broadcast journalism major.

And she has a blog as well.

And, as it turns out, Patrick Sturgeon, the director of ESPN America Programming, is a KU alumnus as well.

So there’s a whole flock of them over there, which is pretty spiffy.

• I spotted Donna Ginther, director of the Center for Economic and Business Analysis at KU, quoted in the Wichita Eagle on a story about how personal income rose 1.9 percent in Kansas.

“It’s the one bright spot that we see in what is otherwise a very anemic recovery,” Ginther told the newspaper. “A lot of it is driven by the fall in the exchange rate that has driven up exports.”

The story said that income is increasing because of a rebound for workers in durable manufacturing, and an increase in military income in the state, citing an added $150 million, likely from the redeployment of soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division back to Fort Riley.

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