Friends:

Welcome to the 2006 session of the Kansas legislature!  The first week is always a bit slow, although with all of the office moves, it’s taking a while to get into the swing.  If you come to Topeka, don't look for me in the building...  I've been banished across the street to the Docking State Office Building (DSOB as it is affectionately called).  Actually, beyond the inconvenience of the distance, which can also be a benefit (it's quiet because no one wants to make the trek over there to talk to you), it is actually quite nice!  I have my own office space with actual walls.  Cubicle walls, but walls nevertheless.  I have two matching chairs that are in good enough shape that I’m not embarrassed to offer someone a seat.  I only share my secretary with one other legislator, instead of two.  There is enough space for my intern to have her own cubicle, and even a real desk!    Plus, the all-time best part?  You should see the view of the capitol!!!  All the off-site legislators are on the 7th floor of DSOB, and I have huge windows the length of the office, overlooking the west side of the capitol.  Do I have to move back?

Check out the Education section for the Post Audit Study commentary and the Floor Activity section for my thoughts on this year's State of the State Address.

Education and Personal Activities
Floor Activity
Commerce and Labor
Higher Education
Governmental Organizations and Elections
Resources

Education and Personal Activities
The reason I haven't written before this about the Post Audit Report?  Some of the sheer numbers were shocking, but if you've read the Augenblick and Myers study, it just wasn't a "jump on Oprah's couch" report.  Here's my Post Audit Top Ten:

1.  Small school districts get WAY too much money.  I was dumbfounded by the amounts.  (Insert appropriate political wisecrack here.)
2.  Large school districts EVERYWHERE are hurting. 
3.  Urban areas are hurting more.
4.  Special Education should be funded as a function of the number of students instead of the number of teachers serving them.  Obviously, if you report a certain number of teachers and get funding for them, if you need more teachers, you don't have the funding to hire them.
5.  Bilingual education should be funded as a function of the number of students...  You get the idea.
6.  There are different kinds of at-risk students.  Oh, and if you're thinking Kansas is a pretty well-off state, think again.  This number absolutely astounded me.  30% of our students receive FREE lunch.  That's not free AND reduced.  That's just FREE.
7.  The Post Audit report suggested an "Urban Poverty" weighting determined by the number of free lunch students multiplied by the enrollment density of the district.  This factor would significantly help four school districts: Wichita, Topeka, Kansas City, and Kansas City-Turner.
8.  While the Johnson County schools came out well in the study (it said we deserved more money), the basic conclusion was that in addition to the dollars we already send the state (nearly 30% of the State's tax revenue) We should hook up an IV from the banking industry in Johnson County and run it down I-35 to Wichita.  Their numbers were really out of whack.
9.  The legislature asked the Legislative Division of Post Audit (LPA) to determine costs from two perspectives: 1) Inputs-based - what would it cost the State to provide what the statute requires us to provide, and 2) Outcomes-based - what would it cost the State for districts to meet the standards set forth by the State Board of Education?
      9a.  What LPA found was that while districts were meeting statutory requirements, in most cases the State was not paying for what it costs.  They found that most districts had to use Local or Federal funds to take over where the State left off.
      9b.  In either case, we are MILLIONS behind, which is what A & M told us.  The Auditors broke the Input numbers into three categories - what would it cost for: 1) Class sizes of 25, 2) Class sizes of 20, and 3) Class sizes of 18 in K-3 and 23 in 4-12.  Then the Outcomes-based was presented in one lump number.
      9c.  The numbers ranged from a need of $250 million to $716 million, depending on what the State would choose to fund.
10. To view the entire report, which is one-inch thick (the tables at the end are the meaty, interesting stuff), or to read the Executive Summary which will give you the general gist without all the tables, click here or take your browser to: http://www.kslegislature.org/postaudit

Floor Activity
About the only thing that happened on the floor this week was the State of the State Address.  Governor Sebelius delivered her fourth State of the State address Monday evening, and it was pretty standard fare - talking up accomplishments, pointing out dignitaries, and some impressive ones at that...  Gen. Richard Myers, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former KSU football baron, Bill Snyder.  The former big-wig caused a quite a stir because rumor had it that a while back, some were trying to recruit Myers to run as a Republican against Sebelius.   Guess he wasn't interested, that's a pretty big coup to get him here.  The latter big-wig will be heading up the governor's new student mentoring program.  I'll get you more information on that as it becomes available, I hope they will be partnering with existing groups like YouthFriends.

In any case, the numbers the Gov provided were encouraging, but of course numbers are pretty easily manipulated, but here they are: 

More Kansans are working now than ever in the history of the State.
21 straight months of economic growth
I did like this comment on schools - "We can't spend our way to excellence".  I may have to steal that one.  She used it to mention increased accountability in school district accounting.  However, there were no details.
She mentioned an effort to help parents guard against vulgar content on TV, movies, music, and the Internet, but didn't give any details.
Also, she said right now the State can afford to provide health care to every child aged birth to five years.  No mention on how to do that.
You might see a tax checkoff to help military families on your 2007 income taxes.
That's really about it.  Not a lot of details, but hopefully those will come later.

One proposal I was hoping she would talk about is one she announced at KU Med last week - $5 million each year for cancer research!  This will help KU endow a couple of chaired positions, and bring us one step closer to becoming a Comprehensive Cancer Center.  The CCC program is part of the National Cancer Institute.  This link will give you more information, or copy and paste this into your browser: http://www3.cancer.gov/cancercenters/description.html.

Commerce and Labor
No meetings this week - we start next week.  Expected to be a lot of work on Worker's Compensation this year.

Higher Education
We met for an overview of the Legislative Education Planning Committee's work during the Interim.  Not much new and exciting to report.  Technical Colleges would like more money and flexibility, the Regents Universities are way behind on getting funding for their basic maintenance (which ends up costing us more in the long run - remember the burst pipes at KUMed?) and there will be some common sense bills on allowing universities to sell property that is given to them by a donor who dies.  Right now, they have to get the legislature's permission!

Governmental Organizations and Elections

My committees have changed this year, but my new committee will look familiar to long-term subscribers.  The Ethics and Elections Committee has merged with the Local Government committee to become the Governmental Organizations and Elections Committee.  The committee meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3:30.  We did not meet this week.

Resources

Johnson County Statehouse Hotline - Call Topeka for free!  Dial 913.715.5000 and ask for your Representative or Senator.  If you don't know, simply give them your address and they'll head you in the right direction!

Next Week's hearings:  See any bills that interest you?
House
Senate

LIVE!!  House or Senate Chamber
LIVE!! Paperless House Health and Human Services Committee (1:30-3:30 pm MTWR)

Please do not hesitate to contact me about these or any other issues of interest to you.  I appreciate the opportunity to represent you in Topeka.

Rep. Stephanie Sharp
17th District, Kansas House
Serving Lenexa and Shawnee
www.stephaniesharp.com
Home:  913-894-1201
Topeka phone: 785-296-7654 (Note: this is a change from last year.)