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Maybe Kansas Lawmakers Need Drug Testing

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Decision to skip Leavenworth as NBAF finalist was unfair, Crow says

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Bill would adversely affect schools

By Colleen Surridge

Parsons Sun

What the Kansas Legislature is promoting to the public as a 0.7 percent cut in K-12 public school funding through passage of a new bill is misleading at best, according to some officials.

Rep. Marti Crow, Leavenworth, says claims that the Legislature is giving public education a special break, while bigger funding cuts are made to other state agencies, are not true, as the state has not been funding education as it has been ordered to and agreed to in the last several years.

In 1999, a lawsuit regarding school finance was filed against the state of Kansas.

Concerns involved wealth-based disparities between districts in areas like Johnson County compared to rural and economically struggling districts in counties such as Labette.

The court ruled the state’s prior funding formula failed to provide adequate funding for students, and Kansas was ordered to increase funding.

The state produced a three-year plan for an attempt at meeting the requirements of the Supreme Court. In 2006, the litigation was dropped. However, the state did not keep to the plan presented to the Supreme Court.

“In the 2008 session, the Legislature passed, and the governor signed SB 531, which provided an additional $59 for the fourth year of the three-year funding package that was approved by the Supreme Court in the Montoy lawsuit,” Crow said in a letter being circulated to superintendents. “2008-09 is the third year of the school finance package, and the Legislature even reapproved a Keeping Education Promises Trust fund in the 2008 session to secure the funding for public schools for that four-year period. The mega bill does not keep education promises or even make a good-faith effort to do so.”

To detail it, Crow explained:

The original three-year package promised public schools $4,433 per pupil state funding for this school year. The recision bill would have decreased that amount by $66, but the governor vetoed that amount and instead cut the funding for this year by $33, providing $4,400 per pupil this year.

The bill passed last year, SB 531, promised $4,492 for budget per pupil state funding for next school year. The budget bill being voted this week cuts that by $125 per pupil, to $4,367 (a cut voted for by Parsons Rep. Richard Proehl).

That is a 2.7 percent cut from what was promised and secured in the “Keeping Education Promises Trust Fund” last year.

In fact, the state funding in the bill is even less, by $7 per pupil, than was provided during the 2007-08 school year.

“So do not let this issue be spun to convince the public that public schools and Kansas kids are getting what was promised from the legislative branch of government,” Crow stated.

Educators are fast spreading Crow’s statement as requested and are standing in support of the statements and getting the truth out.

Oswego superintendent Terry Karlin said, “Through the process of reducing the already allocated budget for this year by $33, and originally intending to drop it by another $33 in the House version for school appropriations for base state aid per pupil, it never took into consideration we were promised a $59 base state aid increase in 2009-2010.

“We had been planning on that even with our negotiations last year when we established salaries,” Karlin said. “Any reduction now, coupled with declining enrollment is devastating financially.”

Karlin said there seems to be extreme resistance among many legislators to modify, roll back, or eliminate tax decreases, which had a negative impact on state revenues, Karlin said.

During this recession, Karlin said he is not in favor of increasing taxes, but modifying reductions that are up for consideration now would be prudent to the economy.

The impact on schools during inflation is forcing districts to face “gut-wrenching issues including staff and program reductions.”

“They are using the decreased revenue to blatantly ignore the mandate of both the original court of jurisdiction and the supreme court and it drops like a hammer on the backs of kids,” Karlin said. “We were operating at the beginning of this school year like the $59 increase in base state aid per pupil to $4,492 was in the lock box, but somehow the lock box got unlocked.”

Tony White, director of the Kansas National Education Association Uniserv Southeast, said the Legislature’s decision unlevels the playing field further between districts, reducing the ability for all students to have a similar chance at quality education by being able to afford resources and support.

The portion of increased funding districts had received did make a difference as seen in state assessment test results, showing there was payoff for the increased pay to schools.

Where a huge difference was seen in districts in Southeast Kansas with poverty levels of 40 and 50 percent, there will likewise be huge negative impacts by the withdraw of funding.

Now the state is moving backward two years in funding, which will not only affect all the new staff and special programs put in place to acquire those desired results, but there are big concerns about the impact on employees’ salaries, which are going to cause issues with teacher retention again in the state, White said.

The Legislature backing off from its agreement is causing tremendous problems, White said, which he is sure is going to result in yet another lawsuit against the state.

Still, a suit once filed could take two to three years to reach the courts, and by then much damage will have been done.

“They can’t go back on what the Supreme Court signed off on and not expect trouble,” White said.
Crow, Hiemstra Named Citizens of the Year

By John Richmeier

Leavenworth Times

Tue Jan 20, 2009, 08:22 AM CST
School Bond Issue Passes

Leavenworth public school officials said Wednesday they plan to move quickly on construction projects now that a $57.8-million bond issue has been approved by voters.
Community Development Corporation opens first home

By Tim Linn

Leavenworth Times

Fri Sep 26, 2008

The Community Development Corporation of Leavenworth unveiled its first rehabilitated home at 615 Kiowa St. in an open house on Thursday. Nancy Bauder, executive director of the CDCL, said the 1,700-square-foot, two-story home has three bedrooms and a two-car garage. “It’s really a large home,” she said. It’s also a historic home — Bauder said the house was built in the early 20th century. She said it has already generated interest from families looking for a place to live.
Even though the organization has finished the first home, Bauder said there is still much more to do. “The idea is to build five of these every year,” Mike Crow said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Of the five homes the CDCL sought to renovate or build this year, Bauder said only one has been completed. “It’s been a slower process than we planned,” she said.
Bauder said the pace is due to organizational complications. “We haven’t met the goal,” she said. “It’s just the logistics of trying to get everything organized. But it’s not the end of the year yet. We do have five properties.”
The CDCL purchased the property on Kiowa at the end of May. The organization hosted a town-hall style public meeting in June to discuss possible future directions for development. Although Bauder said the CDCL plans to use the information in the future, the first house was already being rehabilitated. “We knew what needed to be done for this house,” she said. However, she said the CDCL will use the input from the meeting to guide the design of new homes for the organization.
Bauder said she hopes to start building new homes in about a month, and that the rehabilitation might help spur development in the area. “Hopefully as we get to working on these houses, it’ll help encourage others to revitalize the northeast area,” she said.
At the ceremony, Crow spoke about what the completion of the first house means to the organization and the community — especially in a city where about 50 percent of homes are rental properties. “Home ownership is very important to people,” he said.
Cancer treatments don’t slow lawmaker

From the Basehor Sentinel, Tongonoxie Mirror and Lawrence Journal World, May 2008

By Nicole Kelley - nkelley@theworldco.info

7:30 a.m., and Rep. Marti Crow, D-Leavenworth, makes her way into the State Capitol in Topeka. By now, the Kansas Legislature has been in session for four months. She takes her place as the agenda chairwoman for the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives and later heads over to the education committee meeting. The busy morning is followed by a busy afternoon and evening as the day’s House session kicks off at 11 a.m. can stretch on until 6:30 p.m. Sometimes, the House is in session as late as 11 p.m. Crow’s schedule is like most of her fellow state representatives while the Kansas Legislature is in session from January until April. Except for one thing. While others dine out in many of Topeka’s restaurants during their lunch break, Crow drives herself to St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., for a daily radiation treatment.

For the past 10 months, Crow has been battling an aggressive form of breast cancer while trying to maintain the busy life required of a Kansas lawmaker. “I have a lot more energy than most people,” Crow said. “My husband says I use more energy sitting still than most people do during a full run.” It’s been that energy, along with the support and love of her friends and family, that has helped Crow flourish since her cancer diagnosis in July 2007. The diagnosis Crow’s mother had breast cancer, so Crow said she was always diligent about getting mammograms for herself. In one such mammogram, a lump was found in her right breast, which is where her journey begins.

Once the lump was found and then diagnosed as cancer, the Crows wasted no time jumping into attack mode. Her husband, Mike Crow, is on the board of Cushing Memorial Hospital in Leavenworth, which is part of the St. Luke’s Heath System. He began asking around for the best breast cancer oncologist. Only one day after her diagnosis, Crow had an appointment with Dr. Ali Shwaiki, where together a plan was determined for the next year of treatment. “When we first got the diagnosis, we had no idea how the treatment was going to go,” Crow said. “But when we talked to the oncologist, he did a bunch of testing to see if there was any spread anywhere in my body, then we laid out a plan that we’ve pretty much followed.”

The plan of attack was to have chemotherapy for six months from August until December. In February, she had a mastectomy to remove her right breast. “My cancer was gone at the end of the chemotherapy,” Crow said. “It was completely gone. When they did surgery, no (cancerous) cells were found, not a single one.” Following the surgery came radiation treatment, Monday through Friday for six weeks. With great relief, Crow had her last treatment April 11. She will now begin taking the drug Herceptin every three weeks for a year as a preventive measure. “We feel very good that the cancer, the tumor and any spread was taken care of by the chemotherapy,” she said. “Radiation and surgery was kind of an insurance policy against reoccurrence.”

Juggling act

Crow’s diagnosis and plan of attack was only the beginning of what was in store for her as she thought over her plans for the legislative session. The Leavenworth lawmaker first was elected in 1996 and is serving her 12th year. “We looked at the plan and looked at the calendar of when I knew I’d have to be in the Legislature, and we figured I could probably serve without missing much,” she said. From the beginning, Crow said she knew she wanted to complete her term. Despite loving the job, she said it would be difficult for someone else to come in during the middle of the year. Crow missed two weeks of the session for surgery, but was back ready to work as soon as she could. She said the experience was “relatively painless” and she felt a bit tired only during her first week back. During the overlap time of her radiation treatment and the legislative session, Crow made adjustments. With St. Luke’s, Crow was able to set her appointments at 1 p.m., during the representatives’ lunch breaks.

Crow said she actually looked forward to the trips between Topeka and Kansas City. She listened to books on tape and enjoyed the alone time that’s hard to come by during a session. “I feel like coming back to the session has not been a mistake at all,” she said.

Rep. Kenny Wilk, R-Lansing, couldn’t agree more. He said what Crow has accomplished while battling cancer was remarkable. Wilk cited Crow’s upbeat and positive attitude throughout this year’s session. “I think I can speak for the whole Legislature when I say we have nothing but admiration for what she’s been able to handle,” Wilk said. “When you have a tough time, that’s how you battle it. She’s set an example for all.”

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius also witnessed Crow’s battle up close during the session. Sebelius, who has been a close friend of the Crow family for decades, first met Mike Crow when he was a state senator. It was during those years that Sebelius said she saw just how much the Crows “were amazing public servants, wonderful parents and community leaders.” “This recent cancer battle of Marti’s has brought those great characteristics forward once again,” Sebelius said. “Marti Crow has the support and love of her amazing family and lots of friends but never stops fighting for others, even as she battles for herself. She represents the best aspects of a true public servant — putting her constituents ahead of herself. I am proud to be her friend.”

Supportive following

Crow said those friends and her family made her stronger during this difficult year. She and her husband, Mike, have three children: daughter Jennifer Crow, who lives in Topeka and is the executive director of the statewide organization Kansas Coalition for School Readiness, which works to promote quality early childhood education programs; daughter Emily Crow-Crossman, who is an equine veterinarian, or horse doctor, in Georgetown, Texas; and son Bryan Crow, who lives in Los Angeles, where he is striving to become a screenwriter. “I have such a good support from my family,” Crow said. “They really believe in what I’m doing and think it’s important that I be (in the Legislature).” Crow plans to run for at least one more term.

Crow said she wouldn’t have made it through chemotherapy without the help and support from her family and friends. While receiving chemotherapy, many of Crow’s sorority sisters from Baker University would come sit with her during the treatment. She said treatments went by quickly with her friends there to talk with and reminisce about college days. “I’m the only person I know who looked forward to chemo,” Crow said. “I loved seeing my friends. It made all the difference in the world.” Her constituents of the 41st District, which includes sections of Leavenworth and Fort Leavenworth, also were supportive and encouraging. Crow said when she was first diagnosed it never occurred to her to try to keep the illness a secret. “Once I let people know about my diagnosis, I got support from women in the community who had cancer and recovered,” she said.