Happy Easter. Happy Passover. And…
I know I’ll be celebrating the end of this 2026 legislative session. Celebrating because it is over. And celebrating that we have an opportunity in November to break the republican supermajority that has bulldozed their way through the legislative process this year and done little to help Kansans.
This week is literally our last chance to stop the many harmful bills passed by the legislature by:
Encouraging the Governor to veto concerning/harmful bills
Contacting legislators encouraging them to sustain the governor’s vetoes
Right now, our focus is on contacting the Governor. Once we know which bills she decides to veto, we’ll reach out to legislators who are set to return on Thursday. Although, feel free to reach out to your legislators now about any of these bills asking them to sustain a potential veto.
✅ Use this link to send quick messages to the governor asking her to veto the bills listed in the four VETO sections (Education, Medicaid, Elections, ICE/Immigrants) that follow. You can use the copy & paste message included in each section. Some additional notes about sending messages:
In the ‘Areas of Interest’ drop down menu of the link, choose LEGISLATION.
If at all possible, try to use your own words.
It would be most impactful to send individual emails for each bill you’d like the Governor to veto, especially for the education bills, but I recognize there are a lot.
You can also call the Governor at 785-368-8500 and list off the bills. You might make separate calls for each of the four categories/sections.
Further down you can read more details about each of the education bills. This is the longest message to the governor. Feel free to break this up into a couple of messages.
✅ Copy & Paste message to the Governor:
Governor Kelly,
I hope that you will consider vetoing the following bills and budget provisos that will have a detrimental impact on Kansas students, public school funding, or the general operations of local school districts and school boards that serve Kansas students.
The overall budget (CCR HB 2513) is concerning as it continues to significantly underfund special education and other mandates for mental health, professional development, the Blueprint for Literacy, and more. The underfunding of special education has hit crisis levels.
If the overall budget is not vetoed, please veto these two line items in CCR HB 2513:
Student walkout proviso: Schools should not be penalized for students exercising their first amendment rights.
Cut score proviso: Using the old state assessment cut scores for the new state assessments will essentially invalidate student achievement data.
I hope that you will also veto the following bills that impact public school funding and local control:
CCR HB 2468: Public dollars belong with public schools and we should not be diverting more money to private schools while the legislature continues to significantly underfund special education.
CCR SB 361: Kansas should not be facilitating the federal government’s funding of private schools while congress is not meeting its obligation to fund special education. The federal program would subsidize private school tuition for Johnson County area families making as much as $315,000; families who are already sending their kids to private schools and can easily afford tuition.
CCR HB 2402: The detrimental impacts this bill will have on at-risk student funding and the addition of SB 384 that will open the door to problematic charter schools in Kansas, outweighs the benefits within the bill.
HB 2593: This is a power grab by the attorney general. Please preserve local control and allow local school boards (and local governments) to continue to make their own decisions when it comes to legal matters.
Sub for HB 2745: This bill puts power in the hands of the minority and would be detrimental to the school district’s ability to plan for both short-term and long-term needs.
Sub for HB 2731 is the bill we talked about quite a while ago that would add unnecessary burdens on Medicaid and SNAP recipients that could result in vulnerable Kansans losing coverage or going hungry. Though some of the worst provisions in the bill have been removed, trusted advocacy groups that understand the ramifications of this bill are still expressing concerns and would like the governor to veto the bill.
✅ Copy & Paste message to the Governor:
Governor Kelly,
Please protect vulnerable Kansans who rely on Medicaid and SNAP by vetoing Sub for HB 2731. This bill adds unnecessary red tape that could result in eligible Kansans losing coverage and going hungry.
Representative Pat Proctor attempted to push through a multitude of bills this year that would disenfranchise Kansas voters and generally make voting and registering to vote more difficult. Below are three bills that made it to the Governor’s desk.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Pat Proctor is running for Secretary of State. We cannot let him hold that office. Besides messaging Governor Kelly to veto these bills, I urge you all to do the following:
Get to know Jennifer Day who is running for Secretary of State. She will be excellent.
Attend a meet & greet. Message me if you’d like to attend one in NE JoCo on Wed evening.
Donate to Jennifer Day’s campaign.
Follow her on Facebook & Instagram. Like/Comment/Share her posts.
Spread the word about Jennifer Day’s campaign. Tell your friends. Invite them to a meet & greet.
This is serious. This is a statewide office many people won’t pay attention to, but we need them to elect Jennifer Day!
✅ Copy & Paste message to the Governor: Governor Kelly,
The legislature has passed numerous bills that would unnecessarily overhaul elections and disenfranchise Kansas voters. Please veto the following bills:
HB 2437 risks purging eligible voters from the rolls based on flawed data.
HB 2569 is another attempt to chip away at mail voting by automatically ending mail voting for thousands of Kansans if any judge in the state deems the state’s ballot signature verification law to be invalid. It also takes away people’s right to challenge election laws in their own community by forcing them to file in Shawnee County.
HB 2587 would make state IDs, like driver’s licenses, follow stricter rules than REAL ID by requiring documents to prove citizenship. This is overkill with no plan for implementation and could put legal residents who aren’t citizens at risk in numerous situations whenever they have to show their ID.
The legislature was more intent on protecting ICE and targeting immigrant neighbors than protecting individual rights.
✅ Copy & Paste message to the Governor:
Governor Kelly,
Please veto the following bills that target our immigrant neighbors in Kansas:
HB 2372 would allow county sheriffs to hold undocumented people in jails without a warrant signed by a judge, expand qualified immunity for untrained ICE agents, and make a new crime for approaching/observing a first responder (e.g. ICE officer) within 25 feet. This does not make our communities safer.
SB 254 revives a ban on in-state tuition for undocumented students, even those who have attended and graduated from Kansas schools.
From an education perspective, the final budget is a big disappointment. Two lowlights:
A mere $6 million increase for special education. The legislature is mandated to fund 92% of excess SpEd costs. A $25 million increase is needed just to keep the state at current (under)funding levels of around 65%.
A $6 million cut to the successful Mental Health Intervention Teams (MHIT) program; from $16 million to $10 million.
School districts across the state have maxed out their local option budgets (LOB) to provide the needed (and legally required) SpEd supports. Instead of the legislature meeting their mandate to fund SpEd, those costs are being paid for with our local property taxes. And with LOBs maxed out, districts are left to make difficult budget decisions impacting all students.
It is unclear if Governor Kelly will veto the overall budget, or whether a veto would even result in a new budget with a larger SpEd increase. We really just need to get rid of the republican supermajority if we ever want to see SpEd fully funded. NOVEMBER IS COMING!
We absolutely need to advocate for Governor Kelly to veto the following line items in the budget:
❌ VETO Student Walkout Proviso: Requires the Department of Education to create a complaint process and imposes penalties, equal to the superintendent’s base salary, for any school district in which a “student walkout” occurs without parental permission being obtained for every participating student.
❌ VETO Cut Score Proviso: Prohibits the Department of Education to report state assessment results using the new cut score standards. They must use the scoring standards prior to July 1, 2025. This is nonsensical and extremely problematic as the new state assessment exams don’t match up to the old scoring system.
Two voucher bills have landed on Governor Kelly’s desk—CCR HB 2468 and CCR SB 361.
There was an interesting development with the voucher bills during the education conference committee (where the House and Senate negotiate differences) that we haven’t seen before.
❌ VETO CCR HB 2468: This is the resulting conference committee report (CCR) from the voucher bill we’ve been following all session that:
Opts Kansas into the new federal tax credit scholarship voucher program
Expands the cap on the Kansas Tax Credit Scholarship voucher program to $15 million from $10 million; original bill sought a $30 million cap
CCR HB 2468 passed both chambers and was sent to the Governor’s desk. While awaiting her action on the bill, leadership did a gut-n-go on an existing unrelated bill (SB 361) by stripping its contents and creating CCR SB 361.
❌ VETO CCR SB 361 which contains just the opt-in for the federal program.
So, there are now two bills on the Governor’s desk opting Kansas into the federal program. It seems leadership senses they don’t have enough votes to override a potential veto of CCR HB 2468, so they are hedging their bets with CCR SB 361 to try to bring the federal voucher program to Kansas.
This one is a sticky wicket.
HB 2402, as introduced, looks to improve food security for Kansas children by increasing participation in the federal level Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program, which allows high-poverty schools to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students without individual applications; a very worthy goal.
However, there are two sticking points with CCR HB 2402.
First, HB 2402 puts much needed funding for at-risk students in jeopardy. The additional funding a district receives (within the Kansas school finance formula) to provide supports for at-risk students is based on the number of kids applying for and receiving free lunch. Schools that participate in CEP will likely see a reduction in at-risk funding when parents are no longer required to apply for school lunch. An unfortunate catch-22 for school districts.
Second, bill SB 384 that opens the door for charter schools in Kansas was added into CCR HB 2402. Too often, we see bad bills pushed through the legislature through bill bundling during conference committees in the final weeks of the session, and this is one of those situations. Much like vouchers, charter schools lack accountability and can drain resources from public schools that are already strained by the underfunding of special education.
❌ VETO CCR HB 2402: Although the intent behind the original HB 2402 is laudable and supported by organizations we have a great deal of respect for, education advocates believe the harm to school funding and the addition of charter schools in Kansas that CCR HB 2402 would bring, are too great.
❌ VETO HB 2593: Allows the Attorney General to veto, at their discretion, contracts for legal services (specifically contingency fee arrangements) made by local governments, school districts, and municipal boards. Put simply, the bill gives Attorney General Kris Kobach the power to block cities, counties, and school districts from filing lawsuits he doesn’t like for ideological reasons.
❌ VETO Sub for HB 2745: Allows just 10% of a community to essentially veto a budget proposed by a municipality or school district if it exceeds a specific threshold, creating a risk that a vocal minority can dictate funding. This could create uncertainty in school funding, complicate long-term planning and budgeting, and force districts to reduce services, defer maintenance, or cut staff.
.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.