Kansas school board faces another possible seismic shift

by Mike Hendricks
Kansas City Star
Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008

To Kansas moderates, it’s the political equivalent of “Night of the Living Dead.”

Only in this movie, the zombies are those social conservatives who the mods and liberals fear will rise from the dead to retake the Kansas Board of Education.

Evolution all over again?

It could happen. Not two years after Kansas voters pounded a stake into the heart of the far right’s domination of the state school board, Democrats and moderate Republicans worry about a reversal.

“The situation has been a yo-yo, and it threatens to be a yo-yo once again,” says John Martellaro of the center-to-left-leaning Kansas Families for Education.

Now the mods and libs have a 6-4 majority, and so there’s been little controversy lately over issues like sex education and evolution.

But it looks as if the conservatives have a pretty good shot at recapturing the majority, the essential step back down the road to the sort of unwelcome publicity that Kansas endured a few years ago.

It’s simple math, mixed with the potential for voter apathy.

Half of the board’s 10 seats are up for a vote this year. Three of those five are now held by the controlling moderate faction, which would not be so worrisome to the likes of Martellaro’s group.

However, two of those three incumbents — Republican Sue Gamble of Shawnee and Democrat Bill Wagnon of Topeka — have announced their retirements. And the third, Republican Carol Rupe of Wichita, hasn’t decided whether to run again.

“I’m way concerned,” says Gamble, who is giving up her spot on the board to run for the state Senate seat being vacated by fellow Republican Nick Jordan so that he can run against Democratic Congressman Dennis Moore.

And the reason for Gamble’s concern?

“There’s this whole perception that it’s fixed,” she said, meaning that the board is shying away from volatile issues like evolution.

Ah, yes. The complacent moderates, who register interest in the state school board only when it has done something outrageous.

Indeed, Gamble owes her seat on the board to just that sort of voter backlash. It was 1999 that the religious right’s allies on the board injected theology into the state science standards.

Voters took exception and the board changed hands after the 2000 election, sending Gamble to her first term. By 2002, however, apathy set in and the moderates lost a seat, resulting in a 5-5 deadlock. Two years later conservatives were back in the saddle, and soon the board was sponsoring widely publicized hearings on evolution.

Abstinence-only sex ed was also on the agenda, and the conservative majority hired a commissioner of education with zero qualifications for the job but a warm feeling for school vouchers.

Voter outrage ensued and once again the balance shifted in 2006.

But as Gamble mentioned, nothing is ever “fixed” with the state board for longer than one election, and control could yo-yo again. Added to the equation above is the expectation that conservatives are expected to hang on to their four seats, including the two up for a vote this year. Both incumbents — Republicans Steve Abrams and Kathy Martin — are running.

Of course, it’s too early to tell. The filing deadline isn’t until June.

But history shows that many voters won’t have it on their radar. There’s an exciting presidential race to divert attention. Plus around here, we’re expecting a hot contest between Moore and Jordan in the 3rd Congressional District.

The perfect scenario for a conservative takeover of the school board, it would seem, which would suit Charlotte Esau, executive director of the right-leaning Kansas Republican Assembly, a player in past board elections.

Or as Esau put it when we talked Thursday afternoon, “It’s actually been on our radar screen, but we haven’t done a lot about it.”

So far.


To reach Mike Hendricks, call 816-234-7708, or send e-mail to mhendricks@kcstar.com