This is written testimony delivered to the House Committee on K-12 Education Budget in support of SB 142, a bill that would fully fund public education, based on Governor Laura Kelly's plan.

Last week, when some of the largest school districts in Kansas were having Spring break, and parents and education advocates were enjoying time with family or away, the Leadership of the Kansas House of Representatives sought to push through their bill to "fix" public education. On the same day that the Kansas Senate voted to pass SB 142, which would add the funding sought by the Governor, the House held a hurriedly-organized hearing on HB 2395, an omnibus education policy bill that changes policy and funding levels passed last year and already ruled Constitutional by the Kansas Supreme Court. In short, they threw a spanner into the works.

This is testimony delivered to the House Committee on K-12 Education Budget by Brandi Fisher, Executive Director of the MainStream Coalition, in opposition to HB 2395, a bill that would set back public education and continue school funding litigation.

In addition, we have appended the prepared comments Ms. Fisher delivered orally before the Committee at the hearing, as they differed from the written testimony in a few key areas, given time to read the 61-page bill.

This is an article from the Topeka Capital-Journal about the hearing itself: Rep. Brenda Landwehr lashes out at opponent to Kansas House plan to fund schools - 3/18/2019

This is testimony delivered to the House Committee on Elections by Lesa Patterson-Kinsey, Outreach Coordinator for the MainStream Coalition, in support of SB 130, a bill that would require elections officers attempt to contact voters when a signature mismatch on advance ballots would otherwise invalidate the vote.

SB 22 is a bill originated in the Kansas Senate by Senate President Susan Wagle (R, 7%) to redistribute taxes to high earning individuals and multinational corporations. It passed the Senate 26-14, with a few Republicans bucking their leadership, but not enough margin to override a veto (in the Senate they need 27 votes). This past week, it passed the House, by a wider margin, 76-43. The House needs 84 votes to override a veto. There's been a lot of ink spilled and web pages refreshed on this topic, so we thought we'd take a minute to lay out the politics of this bill.

The Kansas Legislature has hit its first significant deadline, and the consensus is that there has been little action on the most important issues confronting the state. Of course both chambers did pass a slew of non-controversial bills by last Thursday's Turnaround Day, but budget bills, the education finance lawsuit, and medicaid expansion all sit in committees that can still work on them.

The Kansas Legislature is only in session for about five months, give or take a late night extension for partisan arm-twisting. It has some definite deadlines as the year progresses, and we are coming up on one of the most important this week: Turnaround Day. This is the last date on which non-exempt bills may be considered in the chamber in which they were introduced. This year it is this Thursday, February 28.

This is testimony delivered to the House Committee on Education by Ed Peterson, President of the Board of Directors of the MainStream Coalition, in opposition to HB 2288, a bill that would expand religious speech in public schools.

This is testimony delivered to the House Committee on Health and Human Services in opposition to HB 2274, a bill that requires doctors to tell patients that the "abortion pill" is reversible, while medical fact indicates this may not be true.

This is testimony delivered to the House Committee on Federal and State Affairs in support of HB 2067, adding video streaming to committee rooms.