Rep. Dan Hawkins, left, a Wichita Republican, and other GOP legislators on an oversight committee this week approved the Brownback administration’s proposal to seek renewal of its privatized Medicaid program for five years. JIM MCLEAN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
By JIM MCLEAN
Republican legislators have temporarily sidetracked an effort to block the Brownback administration from obtaining federal approval to renew KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program.
Democrats on a joint committee that oversees KanCare wanted the panel’s report to the full Legislature to recommend keeping the current program in place until a newly elected governor takes office in January 2019.
“If we are to extend KanCare by five years, which is what this does, we are going to take this right through the entire first term of the next administration,” said Sen. Laura Kelly, from Topeka, the top Democrat on the oversight committee. “I’m not comfortable as a legislator doing that.”
In addition to the timing issue, advocates and some lawmakers are concerned about several provisions in the administration’s KanCare 2.0 plan, including work requirements and lifetime caps on services for some beneficiaries.
But with two Democrats and a moderate Republican who has been critical of KanCare absent at the time of this week’s vote, Kelly had no chance of prevailing. So Sen. Vicki Schmidt, a moderate Republican from Topeka and chairwoman of the committee, suggested that the panel take no position.
That didn’t sit well with conservative Republicans who wanted to go on record in support of the administration, specifically Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, who will take the reins of state government if and when the U.S. Senate confirms Gov. Sam Brownback’s nomination to a State Department post.
Colyer, a physician, is the architect of KanCare, which in 2013 transferred the health care of more than 400,000 low-income, elderly and disabled Kansans to three for-profit managed care organizations.
“I think we’ve got to move forward,” said Rep. Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, in making a motion to back the administration’s plan to implement KanCare 2.0 by Jan. 1, 2019.
Members approved the motion on a voice vote. But representatives of advocacy groups opposed to “doubling down” on a KanCare program that they say continues to be plagued by administrative and service delivery problems blamed the outcome on timing.
“Had that vote taken place when everybody was here, his motion fails,” said Tim Graham, associate director of InterHab, a nonprofit organization that represents providers of community services to Kansans with developmental disabilities.
Opponents will continue their efforts to block or delay implementation, Graham said.
“This is a non-binding recommendation,” he said. “We need to take the conversation into the Legislature as a whole.”
Opponents hope to use the departure of several top officials at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the state’s lead Medicaid agency, to bolster their case for delaying a decision on renewing KanCare until a newly elected administration takes office.
Credit scores can be important for many reasons, but how a score is calculated is often a mystery to some people.
That’s according to Rebecca Lobina with the Northwest Missouri State University Small Business and Technology Development Center.
A credit score is used by banks for loans, but also by insurance companies, landlords and some employers.
Lobina said there are three credit bureaus and FICO is a consolidation of the three bureau’s scores along with an algorithm FICO uses. With FICO, the credit scores range from 300 to 850. Under 650 is considered poor and above 740 is considered excellent. According to Lobina, the national average is 695.
Lobina said to find out your credit score, you can contact one of the three credit bureaus or you can go through some place such as Credit Karma. Lobina adds it does not affect your score if you pull your own credit report.
Lobina said, no matter what your score is, to keep in mind that you can influence your credit score considerably. There are five main things that all the credit bureaus and your FICO score look at when calculating your score.
“For FICO, 35% of your credit score is based on your payment history, 30% is based upon how much you owe versus how much you could be in debt with, it’s called your utilization ratio,” Lobina said. “Fifteen percent is the length of history, 10% is how much new credit you have and 10% is the types of credit used.”
Lobina said everyone should look at their credit reports a couple times a year.
“It’s so important to so many other aspects of your life when you are looking for a loan or insurance or whatever the case may be or even potentially changing employers,” Lobina said. “You want to make sure that, in this day and age, with identity theft, that the things that are on your credit report are accurate, that they should be on there.”
For more details and information on credit score, contact the Small Business and Technology Development Center at (816) 364-4105 or click here.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A judge says he will find officials at Larned State Hospital in contempt for not turning over records on the man charged with the murder of a Kansas police officer.
Wyandotte County District Judge Wes Griffin said Friday the hospital has not responded to repeated record requests on Jamaal Lewis. He is charged with capital murder in the death of Kansas City, Kansas, police Capt. Robert Melton.
Griffin says mental health experts need them to determine competency for trial, and requests from prosecutors and defense attorneys have not been met.
Griffin says he is reluctant to enter a contempt order and would wait until Monday to send the notice.
Melton was killed last year while attempting to stop a suspect in a drive-by shooting.
(UPDATE) The Missouri State Highway Patrol has released the name of the person killed in the ultralight plane crash Saturday.
According to the patrol, the only occupant of the aircraft, 65-year-old Randal K. Reynolds of St. Joseph, was pronounced dead at the scene by Richard Shelton with the Buchanan County Medical Examiner’s Officer.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department continue to investigate.
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ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) – The Missouri State Patrol says a person has been killed in an ultralight plane crash in northwestern Missouri.
The crash happened Saturday afternoon in a cornfield in Buchanan County.
The patrol says the crash happened near state Highway JJ. Emergency crews were called to the scene around 3 p.m. Saturday.
The identity of the plane’s pilot has not been released.
JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — Insurance companies have classified Missouri as one of three states deemed “high-risk” for deer collisions.
The Joplin Globe reports that the other two states considered high-risk are Arkansas and Kansas, according to State Farm.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol says that accidents involving deer are common, but fatalities and injuries are rare. The patrol reported three deaths and just more than 300 injuries from deer collisions in 2015.
Auto shop manager Kelly Peterson says he’s had 15 people in the past three weeks come in to have their cars repaired after a run-in with deer. Peterson recommends motorists slow down and pay more attention than usual this time of year, especially at night.
State Highway Patrol Sgt. John Lueckenhoff advises people to avoid making an erratic action upon seeing deer.
Missouri executed Mark Christeson in January. He was convicted of killing a woman and her two children
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) – A court reprieve that halted the scheduled December lethal injection of a Texas prisoner means 2017 will come to an end with 23 inmates executed in the U.S.
Texas inmate Juan Castillo’s scheduled Dec. 14 execution was the last execution scheduled for 2017 in the 31 states that still impose the death penalty. It was halted by Texas’ top criminal court.
The number of executions carried out in 2017 is slightly higher than the 20 carried out in the U.S. in 2016.
Texas has carried out seven executions this year, making it the nation’s most active death penalty state. Arkansas carried out four executions, followed by Alabama and Florida with three, Ohio and Virginia with two, and Georgia and Missouri with one.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspect on felony charges.
On Thursday, a business in the 3000 Block NW Topeka in Topeka reported a felony theft of firearms, according to a media release.
Suspects were described as 2 younger males, a white male and a black male. With the assistance of the business surveillance technology- clear video was obtained of the suspects and the suspect’s vehicle.
Partnering with the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) the investigation led to the identification of the suspects and the vehicle. Topeka Police located the suspect vehicle in the early morning hours Friday.
Four firearms were recovered from the vehicle and individuals, two of the firearms were from the business theft.
Lake-photo Shawnee Co.
Police arrested Javon Williams, 21, on charges of felony theft, felon in possession of a firearm (two charges), felony possession of a firearm and warrants. Also arrested was Zachariah Lake, 22, on charges of felony theft, felony possession of a firearm and warrants. Both are of Topeka.
Dr. Logan Jones. Photo courtesy Missouri Western State University.
Missouri Western State University announced that Dr. Logan Jones will be the next dean of the Craig School of Business.
Dr. Jones, a management faculty member and director of the Master of Business Administration program at Missouri Western State, will take over as the dean of the Craig School of Business on July 1, 2018. Dr. Jones will replace Dr. Michael Lane, who is retiring June 30 after five years at Missouri Western.
“I believe Dr. Jones will do an excellent job as the new dean of the Craig School of Business,” said Dr. Robert Vartabedian, Missouri Western’s president. “His colleagues describe him as ‘extremely hard-working’ and the ‘go-to’ person for the faculty. In addition, he has exhibited strong leadership in establishing the new MBA program.”
Dr. Jones joined Missouri Western’s faculty in 2015 and has served on the Graduate Council and the Faculty Senate. He was a member of the committee that conducted a feasibility study and drafted a proposal for adding an MBA program at Missouri Western. Dr. Jones now serves as director of the program, which launched this fall and has admitted over 60 students. As director, Dr. Jones developed an online MBA program which will launch in the fall of 2018. The online MBA program will be the first completely online master’s program in the Craig School of Business.
“It is an honor to be selected for this role,” Dr. Jones said. “I believe the Craig School is on a great path and, in recent years, has made several progressive changes that will benefit both our students and the region we serve. I look forward to leading the school in the future and having a long career at Missouri Western State University.”
Before his academic career, Dr. Jones worked 16 years in the military and municipal law enforcement. Both of his non-academic occupations included management and administrative roles.
The Craig School of Business offers five majors within its Bachelor of Science in Business Administration program – accounting, finance, management, marketing and supply chain management – and four minors. There are two graduate degree programs – the Master of Business Administration and the Master of Information Management. A unique program within the Craig School allows alumni and senior business majors to become entrepreneurs by competing for the opportunity to own and operate their own franchise store. The Craig School of Business also includes the Center for Entrepreneurship, which trains, mentors and supports business owners and entrepreneurs in the St. Joseph area and beyond. Missouri Western is accredited by AACSB International, a mark of quality shared by less than 5 percent of the world’s 13,000 business programs.
Children who come from low-income families, have disabilities, aren’t white or don’t speak English at home appear to be disproportionately paying the price of Kansas’ teacher shortage, according to an analysis by the Kansas News Service.
Particularly affected are Liberal, Garden City and Dodge City — southwest Kansas towns where most of the students come from low-income families and more than half face the added challenge of building math, literacy and other skills while acquiring English as a second language.
The state’s largest school district, Wichita Public Schools — another predominantly non-white district where three-fourths of the students come from low-income families — is struggling too, reporting nearly 80 unfilled positions as of early this school year.
“It does not lend itself to a fully functioning democracy to not have a strong public education system,” said Steve Wentz, president of the Wichita teachers union. “At some level, money and race is obviously an issue here that people don’t want to talk about.”
Debbie Mercer, dean of education at Kansas State University, said the disproportionate effect of teacher shortages on students in demographic groups that face academic achievement gaps is cause for concern.
About 110 of the 443 teacher and related vacancies reported statewide this school year for prekindergarten through 12th grade involved educating children who have disabilities or are learning English as a second language.
The dearth of special education teachers in particular has long been a problem.
“If we look at special education,” Mercer said, “we’ve known that’s been the No. 1 area of need for years.”
Hover over shaded areas on map to see information about teacher vacancies by Kansas school district.
Hiring challenges
The Kansas News Service obtained a breakdown of this year’s school vacancies through a data request to the Kansas State Department of Education. The list includes unfilled positions for teachers and some other personnel, such as counselors and psychologists.
Nearly half of vacancies at public school districts were concentrated in five districts where upwards of 70 or 80 percent of students come from low-income families:
Wichita USD 259, 79 vacancies (compared to about 4,300 total certified staff last year).
Garden City USD 457, 42 vacancies (about 615 total certified staff last year).
Liberal USD 480, 29 vacancies (380 total certified staff last year).
Kansas City Kansas USD 500, 29 vacancies (2,135 total certified staff last year).
Dodge City USD 443, 22 vacancies (about 470 total certified staff last year).
David Smith, communications director for Kansas City Kansas Public Schools, said the district finds it challenging to attract qualified job candidates and compete with teacher salaries in wealthier areas of the Kansas City metro, making it harder to close achievement gaps.
“It’s one of the things we struggle with and why we fight so hard for equity,” he said. “If we’re serious about closing the achievement gap, then the resources need to be in the places where it’s possible to do that.”
Percent kids currently proficient compared to 2030 goal- CLICK TO EXPAND
Kansas has a goal of significantly boosting math and reading achievement and graduation rates for traditionally disadvantaged and underserved student groups with lower outcomes on those measures —such as black and Hispanic students, students with disabilities, students from low-income families and English language learners. The state told the federal government this fall that it wants to close those gaps by 2030.
At the five higher-poverty districts, non-white students make up the majority, with Hispanic and black students being the largest ethnic and racial groups. Sixty-four percent of children in the Liberal district are learning English as a second language, as are 58 percent in Dodge City and 49 percent in Garden City.
“What you’re experiencing is being experienced across the country,” said Patricia Gandara, co-director of UCLA’s Civil Rights Project. “We’ve always had a shortage of highly qualified teachers in the lowest-income schools.”
Gandara said nationwide, districts with more low-income and minority students are more likely to lack resources critical to successful schools.
Bearing the brunt
The Kansas education department began collecting more detailed information on vacancies in the past few years to investigate anecdotal reports that applicant pools were dwindling.
The list of 2017-18 vacancies backs that impression — as well as conclusions last year by a special task force that a relatively small number of urban or remote southwest Kansas school districts are bearing the brunt of the problem. Statewide, 99 percent of teaching jobs are filled.
All but one of Kansas’ public school districts reported their vacancies to the education department this year, as did some private schools and interdistrict centers or similar entities that allow schools to share staff.
Geography likely compounds the problem. Sally Cauble, a Republican who represents 40 western Kansas counties on the Kansas State Board of Education, said districts struggle to attract candidates to the more sparsely populated half of the state, and the implications worry her.
“I believe that children are the future of your state,” Cauble said. “They’re your future workers, your future leaders.”
Schools often fill vacancies with long-term substitutes or teachers certified to teach other subjects, or redistribute students, resulting in larger class sizes. This spring, districts will report to the state how they dealt with this fall’s vacant positions.
Economic effects
The shortage also has implications for Kansas’ aspirations to bolster math and science education amid a national push to better prepare students for college and careers. This fall Kansas middle and high schools came up short about 70 math and science teachers.
“Literacy in all those fields for all people is critically important,” says Steve Case, who leads efforts at the University of Kansas to prepare more math and science teachers. “It drives our economic engine.”
Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson convened the 2016 task force on teacher supply. The panel suggested factors contributing to the situation could include low pay compared to the private sector, lack of mentoring for early-career teachers, low public esteem for the profession and Kansas’ lack of teacher job protections since 2014.
The Kansas State Department of Education doesn’t yet have complete figures on teacher pay for this school year but estimates that it rose more than 4 percent if benefits such as health insurance are included. The increase came amid a boost in state funding for public schools, triggered by pressure from the Kansas Supreme Court.
Though Kansas schools are still filling 99 percent of their instructional jobs, some superintendents across the state say the number of applicants has shrunk, leaving them fewer choices.
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ.
