Next week, the diversity in school debate returns to neighboring state Missouri via House Bill 952, its anti-1619 Project bill, joining the earlier proposed Parent’s Bill of Rights, SB 776. Missouri, a bellwether for policymaking in Kansas, points to the likely resuscitation of this political ...

One of the simplest ways to define politics is as a struggle for power. This power struggle has flared up again. The Legislature began its 2023 session by introducing a bill that would further disrupt the current power division between state and local entities and also undermine Kansas ...

Consistent with conservative wishes when it comes to K-12 education, the 2023 “A better way” legislative agenda Kansas Republicans released a few days ago leans toward support for school choice Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). Any significant upside in this is that the legislative ...

Kansas’s rural identity is struggling. Partly this is because it’s not entirely accurate. The state’s population of 2.9 million is concentrated in the cities and suburbs of the Topeka-Lawrence-Kansas City nexus, with nearly 1.2 million Kansans spread across only five counties. Add to ...

I’ve got the perfect New Year’s resolution for Kansas legislators: no more lobbyist-authored bills. Last year, Kansas lawmaking was marked by two dramatic “fails,” both involving lobbyist-authored acts. One of them failed, the other passed, and both were problematic. First came ...

With great power comes great responsibility. This phrase has been uttered time and time again and is applicable to a wide range of situations, especially in politics. On Jan. 9, the Kansas Legislature will start its 2023 legislative session. But it’s not a statewide election year, so many ...