Profile in Leadership: Laura Kelly is Waiting on Biden

Photo credit: Charlie Riedel, AP

It’s been over three months since a student shot a school resource officer (SRO) and school administrator in Olathe, and promoting safer schools remains a topic of discussion in Kansas politics.

Attorney General and Republican candidate Derek Schmidt responded by offering his 6-step plan to improve school safety. On the other hand, Kansans have Democrat Governor Laura Kelly, who says she has no new policy ideas to offer and is going to just to wait and watch what Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress do, according to a new report today from The Topeka Capital-Journal.

But failing to address school safety concerns isn’t just a new problem for Kelly. Her last TWO proposed budgets didn’t offer a single dollar to the Kansas Safe and Secure Schools grant program. And just last month, Kelly’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice recommended the Kansas State Board of Education “explore alternatives to SROs.”

“The contrast in this race is becoming clear: a Republican candidate putting forth real ideas to make Kansas a better and safer place or a do-nothing Democrat who is going to sit back and wait on Joe Biden and Washington Democrats to come to her rescue,” said RGA spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez. “It’s not hard to see why Democrat Laura Kelly is the most vulnerable incumbent in the country when her answer to pressing issues is to just shrug and look to the incompetence in Washington for a solution.”