While most of us were watching last week to see just how much authority the Kansas Legislature would hand the governor to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, there are six candidates who are probably wondering just that that new job they are campaigning for is going to look like now that the Legislature has handed them the authority to close — or not — schools at the request of the governor.
The governor, recall, on March 17 ordered public and private schools statewide closed to conventional classroom operations to avoid spread of COVID-19 among students, teachers, staffers and everyone else in the K-12 world.
Students stayed home, studied by conference call, by Internet app, by letters sent from their teachers to their homes. Everything changed by the governor’s order.
And, probably the spread of coronavirus slowed, children and their parents and grandparents stayed healthier, but it was a major change in lifestyle for most of us.
That new diversion of power from the governor to the State Board of Education occurred just after the filing deadline for the two contested seats on the State Board.
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The State Board, a 10-member panel, each district made up of four Kansas Senate districts, will see just half of its membership up for election or re-election this year, and of those five seats on the ballot, only two have primary and general elections for the posts.
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And, those six candidates are likely to have to put forth some position on whether they could vote to close down schools, or keep them open if they don’t believe that a new coronavirus outbreak this fall, or next winter, will be a health hazard to students and staffers. And…just what sort of regulation they may want to consider stanching the spread of the disease.
Those six candidates? Three from Wichita, three from Overland Park-dominated districts, where closing schools has broad economic effect on businesses and parents of children who either will need some sort of day care or the parents will have to stay home.
With a little luck, school will be fine, the pandemic will cool, and school operations can start as usual just after the primary elections. And it may be the incumbents who, if the pandemic restarts, will have to make that tough decision on conventional operation of schools or a shutdown of some sort.
But the job of being a member of the State Board is going to change dramatically with the new authority that was taken from the governor by the Legislature and handed to the board.
And, even for the current members who aren’t on the ballot, you gotta wonder whether they are willing to take the public vote on closing schools or keeping them open.
The water just gets deeper as the pandemic, which appears to be just idling now, ramps up again this summer or fall or winter or is defused by a vaccination that will stop the disease.
It’s just a whole new area of regulation that lawmakers didn’t want the governor deciding. And, it’s likely that legislators aren’t interested in — again, in an election year — deciding by themselves and instead just looking for anyone besides the governor to make the powerful public health/safety/inconvenience decision.
Nope, don’t look for the issue on yard signs, few as there are for candidates for State Board of Education, but look at the issue as it is going to affect everything from care of children to football games to possibly even debate tournaments.
The change in authority probably will refocus some voters on just why they ought to take a look at those down-ballot State Board of Education candidates, and maybe learn a little more about how they want to educate the kids.
Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver's Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com