The state’s largest teacher’s union is sitting out the Democratic primary for governor.
The reason: All the major candidates are committed to public education.
The Kansas National Education Association, with 25,000 members in Kansas, decided not to choose between state Sen. Laura Kelly, former state Rep. Josh Svaty and former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer.
“They’re all very good on the issues of importance to our members,” said KNEA lobbyist Mark Desetti. “A vote for any one of those Democrats is a pro public education vote.”
The KNEA noted on its website that the race between Kelly and Svaty appeared to be “tight” while Brewer enjoys “significant” support.
“We urge our Democratic members to look closely at all these candidates and consider their positions on public education as well as their individual positions on issues of importance to each of you personally.”
On the Republican side, only former state Sen. Jim Barnett participated in the KNEA’s endorsement process. The KNEA acknowledged that Barnett has been contacting teachers throughout his gubernatorial campaign.
However, the teacher’s union had some reservations about his record on its issues when he served in the state Senate from 2001 to 2010.
“He entered the Legislature as a moderate Republican, left the Legislature as a very conservative Republican and so there are two Barnetts in history,” Desetti said.
“What we’re hearing now is a good, moderate candidate on the issues.”
Desetti credited Gov. Jeff Colyer for supporting the education finance bill that put $525 million more into schools last session.
However, Colyer has supported a constitutional amendment taking the court out of school finance cases and has been open to arming teachers although the governor said that was a decision that should be left up to local school boards.
“While we appreciate his work on the school finance bill, we have to look at all these other positions,” Desetti said. “It would be very challenging for us to consider Gov. Colyer as aligned with our positions on a number of other education issues.”
Bottom line, Colyer and Secretary of State Kris Kobach “have made a number of statements publicly that are the opposite of our positions.”
