Despite Democrats flipping three Kansas House seats in Johnson County — the state’s most populated area — Republican strength in rural communities remains as strong as ever. That gives rural lawmakers more say in important budget and policymaking discussions.
Education deans at public universities in Kansas working on solutions to a K-12 teacher shortage want to dramatically expand over three years state financial aid for college students in education programs and to implement a partnership to uniformly compensate student teachers.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly wants to accelerate the phaseout of the state’s food sales tax. That could have the greatest impact on people with low incomes. But Republican lawmakers may not feel the need to do it.
A former Republican member of the Kansas House deepened his legacy of corruption when a U.S. District Court jury returned guilty verdicts on a dozen felony counts of defrauding federal and state agencies of $355,000 in COVID-19 business recovery funds.
Gov. Laura Kelly initiated a campaign Monday to convince the Republican-led Legislature the revenue surplus was sufficient to end the state sales tax on groceries by April 1, create a three-day sales tax holiday on school supplies and increase the state income tax exemption on Social Security benefits.
Restoring life safety and functional integrity to nearly 500 academic or research buildings on state university campuses in the Kansas Board of Regents system would cost an estimated $1.2 billion, officials said Thursday.
Medical marijuana may have a future in Kansas after all, though lawmakers are still uncertain whether any medical marijuana legislation will garner support in the Senate, or wither away like previous bills.
The number of K-12 students in Kansas classified as chronically absent from school surged to 24.5% during the 2021-2022 academic year as educators emerged from the darkest depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Multiple bills have tried to change Kansas laws on expungement, but none have passed. The bills do have bipartisan support and are expected to come back up next year.
After months of meetings, compiling data and listening to research, lawmakers say they’re ready to take another shot at legalizing medical marijuana.
