Laura Kelly Has Failed Kansas School Kids & Parents

Photo credit: Charlie Riedel, AP

Laura Kelly is out with a new ad this morning proclaiming herself the “education governor,” but in reality, no governor in Kansas history has overseen more damage to Kansas schoolchildren and their parents.

As recently outlined in The Kansas City Star:

“Student achievement in math, English and reading tumbled as a result. Those statistics simply reflect what Kansas parents already know: Their child suffered through remote learning and has fallen behind as a result.

“Our children’s mental health and wellness have also deteriorated from Kelly’s hurried lockdown. Isolation led to a rise in teen anxiety, depression and thoughts about suicide. A survey of Kansas teens shows what should be a shocking statistic, but sadly one that Kansas parents understand all too clearly. One in three teens in our state admit they have seriously considered suicide in their life. That is an all-time high, and a 40% increase from when they first began surveying in 2015.

“On Kelly’s watch, about 15,000 students have left public schools since 2019 and Kansas faces its worst-ever teacher shortage. The one thing Kelly and her allies point to as a supposed success is school funding.

“It’s true that our schools are fully funded as required by our state constitution. But they have been since before Kelly took office, as a result of the Republican-led Legislature passing SB 19 in 2017, and SB423 and SB61 in 2018. State Senate Republicans added the final fix to school funding with SB16 in 2019, and it was Attorney General Derek Schmidt who successfully defended the full funding at the Kansas Supreme Court. Schmidt’s court victory, not Kelly, closed the book on our school funding dilemma that began when former Gov. Mark Parkinson, a Democrat, cut K-12 spending.”

If you’re reporting on Kelly’s new ad today, please consider the following statement from the RGA spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez: 

“Democrat Laura Kelly has repeatedly made it clear she’ll ‘make absolutely no apologies’ for the suffering Kansas students and their families have faced on her watch over the last 3.5 years she has served, and she has no substantive plan or response when asked how she is going to fix the problems plaguing Kansas schools. Instead, Kelly is focused entirely on lying about her role in the funding of schools by the Republican legislature, misleading voters about her opponent’s record, and misusing state resources for her campaign. “