TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Sam Brownback and some Republican state senators say a man appointed by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis to a school efficiency task force should be removed because of comments he made in 2011 about school consolidation.

Davis appointed John Vratil, a Republican who is a former vice president of the Kansas Senate, to the task force. The panel is studying ways for schools to use more of their state funding for classroom instruction and less on other expenses.

Majority Leader Terry Bruce, a Hutchinson Republican, says Vratil said in a 2011 interview with the Topeka Capital-Journal that rural school districts should accept that they will have to consolidate.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports Brownback brought up the issue during a debate Saturday at the Kansas State Fair.