Week 3 Kansas Statehouse Recap: guns, private schools, abortion, expensive fail, tuition, and more
Video Script
Hey I’m Davis Hammet with Loud Light. Here’s what happened in the 3rd week of the Kansas legislative session.
Abortion Amendment (HCR 5003)
On Thursday, the abortion constitutional amendment passed the Senate by a supermajority with all Republicans voting yes and all Democrats voting no. This was the final legislative hurdle for the amendment which will now go on the 2020 primary ballot. Technically, it’s not legal to hold a constitutional vote during the party primary election, but legislators got around this by declaring it a special election that’s in conjunction with the primary. This allows unaffiliated voters to get a ballot that just has the amendment on it. This sets off a year and a half campaign that will end on August 2nd, 2022 when voters will decide if the Kansas legislature has complete control over abortion law including the ability to ban abortion with no exceptions
School Vouchers (HB2068)
During the Brownback years the legislature began voucher programs which give tax credits to send kids to private sometimes unaccredited schools including religious schools. The program has limited eligibility with only about 600 students, but the House K-12 education budget committee held a hearing on a bill that would make nearly half of all students in Kansas eligible. The bill is part of model legislation from the right wing organization ALEC which advances various corporate interests including privatizing prisons, privatizing education, deregulation, and corporate tax cuts. The school voucher bill will likely receive a committee vote next week, and this is just one of several bills being introduced that aim to transfer public money into private organizations.
Unanimous
The House passed 3 bills with unanimous bipartisan support including: creating a drug abuse treatment program for people on diversion (HB2026), streamlining the process for plugging abandoned oil and gas wells (HB2022), and providing for the attorney general to coordinate training for law enforcement agencies on missing and murdered indigenous people (HB2008).
Guns (HB 2058 / HB 2059)
The house held a committee hearing on an NRA backed measure to lower the age to carry hidden loaded guns in public to 18. Kansas already allows students who are 21 to carry firearms on college campuses, a law that was pushed through by then Rep. Travis Couture-Lovelady who is also the NRA lobbyist pushing the bill to lower the age to 18. Travis was hired by the NRA mid legislative term after he successfully pushed through NRA policies in the past. This is known as the legislator-lobbyist revolving door and it is illegal in most states as an act of corruption, but remains a common practice in Kansas.
ACLU Voting Case Legal Fees
Kansas is on the hook for nearly $3.3 million in legal fees to the American Civil Liberties Union. The legal costs accumulated as former Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Attorney General Derek Schmidt, and current Secretary of State Scott Schwab fought to maintain a voter suppression law which blocked over 30,000 Kansans from becoming registered to vote. The law was ultimately found to be unconstitutional.
Undocumented in-state tuition
Sen. Peck (R) lost election 4 years ago after infamously suggesting the state use gunmen in helicopters to begin a mass killing of immigrants. The senator with a controversial racist history won his 2020 primary by only 18 votes. On Thursday, he introduced a bill to strip undocumented immigrants who were raised in Kansas schools from receiving in state tuition at Kansas colleges.
Coming Up
For the last 2 years the legislature has been completely consumed by the abortion constitutional amendment debate. Now that that’s over, it’s not clear what their next big push will be, but we should get a better picture over the next couple weeks. Thanks for commenting, sharing, and donating. Stay tuned, stay engaged, and until next time thank you so much Kansas!