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February 27, 2008

Putting Post Cards over Policy: Obscenity amendment passes

The Kansas Senate has determined that political post cards are more persuasive than common sense when it comes to establishing good state policy.

It began last night with an amendment offered by Sen. Karin Brownlee (R-Olathe) to SB 492. Senate Bill 492 was a proposal by Sen. John Vratil (R-Leawood) to allow a teachers license to be issued to a person who had been convicted of a misdemeanor DUI. Under current law conviction on a misdemeanor DUI results in a permanent ban on teacher licensing.

Brownlee’s amendment added two new paragraphs to the bill. The amendment would prohibit any teacher from using materials in a classroom that had not been pre-approved by a local school board.

Here’s how it reads:

[New Sec. 2. (a) A teacher shall not read, use or display in a school any material for which an affirmative defense to prosecution may be asserted under subsection (b)(2) of K.S.A. 21-4301a or subsection (c)(2) of 21-4301c, and amendments thereto, unless such use, reading or display has been approved by the board of education of the school district in which such school is located.

[(b) A principal of a school shall not allow any person to read, use or display in a school any material for which an affirmative defense to prosecution may be asserted under subsection (b)(2) of K.S.A. 21-4301a or subsection (c)(2) of 21-4301c, and amendments thereto, unless such use, reading or display has been approved by the board of education of the school district in which such school is located.]

The “affirmative defense to prosecution” referred to in the amendment is the defense of the educational merit of the material should someone try to bring a prosecution under the state’s obscenity laws.

This bill would put a chilling effect on teaching in that one person’s interpretation of obscene might be dramatically different from another’s. For example, some people consider Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms to be obscene since it includes scenes of premarital sex while others consider the book one of the defining works of 20^th century American fiction. A literature teacher who used the book without having it pre-approved by the school board (not the principal, the board) would be violating the law.

This version of the extremist’s censorship bill is probably less problematic for secondary teachers than for elementary. A department of high school literature teachers could likely get a wide reading list approved by the school board and use only books on that list. The same amendment would be a nightmare for elementary teachers who often use children’s books from their own collections to augment studies. The teacher who brings in a copy of The Lorax following a current event discussion on an environmental issue might offend a parent who works for a utility company. That parent could go after the teacher because the book was not on some board pre-approved list.

The amendment was adopted on a vote of 21 – 15 last night. Voting YES were Republicans Apple (Louisburg), Barnett (Emporia), Brownlee (Olathe), Bruce (Hutchinson), Donovan (Wichita), Huelskamp (Meade), Jordan (Shawnee), Journey (Wichita), Lynn (Olathe), McGinn (Sedgwick), Ostmeyer (Grinnell), Palmer (Augusta), Petersen (Wichita), Pine (Lawrence), Pyle (Hiawatha), Derek Schmidt (Independence), Taddiken (Clifton), Wagle (Wichita), and Wilson (Overland Park) and Democrats Barone (Frontenac) and Gilstrap (Kansas City).

Sen. Jay Emler (R-Lindsborg) and David Haley (D-Kansas City ) did not vote while Sen. Anthony Hensley (D-Topeka) and Steve Morris (R-Hugoton) were excused absences.

The bill then came to a final action vote today and was passed as amended on a vote of 31 – 9. We will let you know tomorrow who voted for and against this measure.

It just goes to show that post cards are more important than policy when it comes time to cast one’s vote. This amendment represents an attack on teachers; presuming that they are peddlers of pornography. It is based in the belief that teachers are evil and must be controlled tightly by the good legislators in Topeka. Is it any wonder that fewer and fewer young people want to become teachers?

A number of Senators who would not normally support this kind of mean spirited legislation voted YES. That’s really because they know it’s an election year. If they vote NO, the extreme conservatives will put out campaign post cards saying they support allowing pornography in our classrooms. This bill is another piece of the shameful legislation that turns voters into cynics and keeps them out of the polls.

There will be more opportunities to work with sensible legislators to repair the damage done this afternoon.

KASB boasts of victory in writing bill to reduce teacher bargaining rights

Clay Aurand/KASB bill would cut money available for teacher salaries for the benefit of only math and science teachers

In a legislative action report today, KASB finally admitted that the move to strip teachers of the ability to bargain salary increases was their idea.

The House Education Committee approved HB 2870 signaling their intent to dismantle collective bargaining for teachers. The vote to move the bill forward was 10-9.

The bill, sponsored by Republican Representative Clay Aurand, chair of the committee, encourages and rewards school district for unilaterally removing money from the bargaining table. It is the third in a series of attacks on collective bargaining and teacher rights, two of which have already passed.

In prior sessions, anti-teacher Legislators with the support of KASB have pushed through legislation granting local school boards the authority to provide bonuses to some teachers outside of the collective bargaining agreement and to remove retired teachers who agree to return to work from the collective bargaining agreement entirely.

Aurand’s bill, if adopted by the full House and Senate, would reward school districts who take money away from the bargaining table to pay bonuses to math and science teachers by granting them more money to pay only to math and science teachers.

All other teachers would be left fighting for whatever was left over after the board granted large bonuses (at least 5% of salary) to math and science teachers.

As written the bill would have strictly prohibited the negotiation of any alternative pay plan including bonuses. An amendment in committee makes negotiations “permissive” – in other words, if the board feels like negotiating bonuses, they can. Anyone who has ever negotiated a contract knows that KASB advises boards NEVER to bargain anything on the permissive list and that virtually all school boards comply with KASB positions.

At a time when Kansas teacher salaries rank 38^th in the nation, when a new research report contracted by Education Week reveals that a Kansas teacher earns 86 cents for every dollar earned by an insurance adjuster, an accountant, or a clergyman, when the shortage of teachers is becoming more alarming, a bill to effectively reduce the salary potential of all Kansas teachers is a slap in the face to the hardworking teachers that staff our classrooms.

This bill sends a clear message – “No teacher below the seventh grade is worthy of a professional salary; no secondary teacher outside of math or science is worthy of a professional salary.”

It’s time for every professional teacher to notify his or her representative in the Kansas House that these mean attacks on the profession of teaching are unacceptable.

Click here to email of your Representative. Let them know what you think of HB 2870.

Want a phone number? Click here, fill in your address, then click on your Representative’s name.

As we go to press…

Both chambers are in debate on the floor. Over in the Senate there are no education bills up for debate today.

In the House, there are two bills. HB 2760 is a Clay Aurand bill that would create a consolidation “stick” by cutting of some low enrollment weighting for small school districts in geographic areas of less than 200 square miles.

The other bill is HB 2605 which changes the high density at-risk funding from a stair step approach to a linear transition so no district would “fall off the cliff” with the loss of a few students. The transition would start at 44% poverty and flatten off at 55% poverty. Between 44% and 55% there would be a gradual increase in the weighting.

A long list of amendments are currently being offered on HB 2760, most of which are failing. We’ll give you a full update tomorrow.

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