By STEPHEN KORANDA

The clock is ticking for Kansas lawmakers to figure out a school funding solution. Briefs making the case for a plan are due to the state Supreme Court April 15.

With only one week of the regular legislative session to go, there’s still significant division over how to satisfy the court that funding is adequate and end the nearly decade-old Gannon lawsuit.

The Senate is backing Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s plan to add $360 million for schools over four years. Republican leaders in the House think the solution is in targeting more money at struggling students, but they don’t want to promise funding hikes far into the future.

The House has not in fact debated a school funding bill. Instead, the chamber approved — by only the narrowest of margins — legislation making a host of changes to school finance policy. House and Senate negotiators will discuss that policy bill next week.

The changes would require more reports on test scores and spending by individual districts. Superintendents would have to certify that sufficient resources are being directed to core curriculum and kids who are at risk of falling behind.

Republican Rep. Kristey Williams said the policy changes will ensure state dollars are spent wisely.

“Accountability is the cornerstone of all good policy,” Williams said when explaining her vote in favor of the policy bill she helped draft.

But some provisions of the bill are causing heartburn for school districts.

The legislation wouldn’t just require more reporting of school spending. It would also limit state funding for bilingual education for students learning English. The Kansas State Board of Education would be asked to determine each year how money for special education is distributed, tossing out an existing target.

The state hasn’t hit that target for special education funding in recent years, but members of the Kansas Association of School Boards don’t want to see it eliminated.

“Many districts are disappointed that we just sort of give up on that,” said KASB lobbyist Mark Tallman.

The bill includes a mix of policies the KASB opposes and supports, but Tallman said policy issues should not be the focus of lawmakers right now.

“None of the policy is as important as resolving funding,” Tallman said. “That’s a major concern.”

Plus, the policy bill isn’t likely to get a warm reception from senators eager to move on from years of litigation.

The Senate signed off on the governor’s plan more than two weeks ago — a plan that adjusts for inflation funding levels that the court said last year were nearly enough.

“The Senate’s already established its position,” Republican Sen. Molly Baumgardner said. “We established that pretty clearly.”

House Republicans do have a proposal to provide an initial infusion of cash for schools. But it doesn’t include long-term increases many believe the court will want to see.

Republican leaders called off debate on the proposal this week for lack of support, but they still believe their caucus can agree on something.

“It’s just part of the process,” House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins said. “We’ve got 84 members of our caucus and we probably have 10 or 15 different ideas out there.”

There are a few different paths legislators could take to reach a school funding solution next week.

If the House approves its own funding bill, that would spark bargaining with the Senate. Or the group of senators and House members slated to negotiate the education policy bill could decide to craft a funding agreement too.

Another option, one that House Democrats like, is to simply sign on to the governor’s proposal that passed the Senate with a bipartisan majority.

“The Senate did their job,” House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer said. “We ought to just pass what the Senate did. Get it done.”

Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.

By Dewey Terrill

Justin Cook and Gary Ryan took home top team honors at the King Kat Tournament Trail event at Milford Lake Saturday with a total catch of 98.64 pounds. Cook, from New Franklin, Missouri and Ryan from Columbia, Missouri combined to win a total of $4,200 for their first place finish. They also had the second biggest catfish caught in the tournament at 53.42 pounds.

.There were 45 two-man teams who braced the winter weather including snow, rain and a cold win to fish in the tournament. With their first place finish Cook and Ryan have qualified for the national championship event November 1st and 2nd in Decatur, Alabama.

The biggest fish was hauled in by Blake McPherren of Wakefield and Jamie Jackson of Clay Center, at 55.56 pounds.

Cabela’s will host another King Kat Tournament Trail regional qualifier at Milford Lake on March 28th, 2020 and they will bring their national championship event to the lake October 30th and 31st, 2020.

DOUGLAS COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 7p.m. Saturday in Douglas County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Ford Explorer drive by Telisa Sheree Walker, 41, Topeka, was westbound on Interstate 70 just east of the east Lawrence exit.

The driver lost control of the vehicle. It left the road, traveled down the embankment impacting the ground four times before coming to rest on its top. Walker was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Frontier Forensics. She was properly restrained at the time of the accdident, according to the KHP.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A former Pineville, Mo., youth pastor was indicted by a federal grand jury this week for producing child pornography.

Ryan Daniel Crawford, 32, currently a resident of Jacksonville, Ark., was charged with producing child pornography between Nov. 29 and Dec. 18, 2017, according to the United State’s Attorney.

Crawford was formerly the associate pastor at First Baptist Church in Pineville.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — No citations have been issued in a St. Patrick’s Day Parade accident in Lawrence in which a woman tripped and was run over by a float.

A police report issued this week says officers don’t believe alcohol or drug use played a role.

The injured 41-year-old woman was taken to the University of Kansas Hospital. Neither she nor the driver of the float showed signs of impairment.

The report says the woman tripped while stepping off the curb to get beads that some people on the float were handing out. The driver told police he was looking forward and going slowly when he “felt a bump.” He said he stopped the truck and heard onlookers screaming.

The report provided no details on the woman’s injuries.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Advocates are considering whether to put the issue of expanding Medicaid before Missouri voters.

St. Louis resident Heidi Miller recently filed two petitions with the Secretary of State’s office seeking to ask voters to weigh in on expanding Missouri’s Medicaid health care program, the Springfield News-Leader reported .

Miller couldn’t be reached for comment, but expansion advocates said the filings aren’t a symbolic gesture.

“It’s not just another filing,” said Amy Blouin, president and CEO of the Missouri Budget Project. “There’s a lot of people and a lot of organizations that want to do something to fix the issue we have with Medicaid, and the momentum from other states kind of incentivizes Missouri to do something like Medicaid eligibility fixes.”

Blouin said she and other advocates have followed like-minded groups push successful ballot measures in Idaho, Nebraska and Utah.

Blouin and other advocates are still weighing whether to get behind the effort to gather thousands of signatures for a ballot measure. It’s unclear how much support Medicaid expansion would receive in the state.

Progressive initiative petitions last fall indicated that a measure like Medicaid expansion could garner support. Measures such as medical marijuana legalization and an increase in the minimum wage received more than 60 percent of the vote, Blouin said.

“I think that we’ve got good indication that Missourians are willing to support (Medicaid expansion) from those measures,” Blouin said.

The efforts come as Missouri’s Medicaid rolls are dropping faster than in other states, and Gov. Mike Parson called for $50 million less in health care funding because of a drop of more than 71,000 enrollees over the last year.

Opponents have argued that expansion would be too expensive. Many Republicans have expressed concerns with expanding a health care program that is in need of extensive reform.

A draft report commissioned by the state that was released last month found that Missouri could save up to $1 billion a year within the next four years if it overhauls Medicaid. The report didn’t call for tightening eligibility rules, but rather reducing Medicaid costs by altering reimbursement rates for hospitals, doctors and nursing homes.

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — David Boren’s appointment as president of the University of Oklahoma two decades ago was the capstone of a storied career. Born into a prominent Oklahoma political family, he became a Rhodes scholar, then governor at age 33 and later a U.S. senator respected for his expertise in intelligence.

His arrival on campus marked a heady time for the school, which set out to achieve his vision for a flagship institution.

But now, less than a year after retiring, Boren’s reputation is at risk. The 77-year-old Democrat finds himself ensnared in allegations that he sexually harassed male subordinates, and he’s on the defensive in a red state now solidly controlled by political adversaries.

The university has hired a law firm to investigate the accusations, and state authorities confirmed this week they have opened a similar probe.

Bob Burke, one of Boren’s attorneys, has characterized the inquiry as a “fishing expedition based on vicious rumors.” But at least one former student has come forward and said Boren touched him and kissed him on multiple occasions in 2010 and 2011 after he began working as Boren’s teaching aide.

The allegations by Jess Eddy, now 29, which he detailed in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, contradict previous statements Eddy gave to investigators denying inappropriate behavior by Boren. Eddy’s new allegations were first reported on Tuesday by the online news site NonDoc.

Another Boren attorney, Clark Brewster, has dismissed Eddy’s new account, saying Eddy “was carefully examined, asked about anything that he had ever witnessed or had seen or had experienced and not only said that didn’t occur, but he gave specific factual detail as to why it couldn’t have been true.”

Eddy said he was untruthful earlier to protect Boren, but then “started to realize the implications of what I was doing by concealing my truth.”

Boren has denied any inappropriate behavior but declined a request for an interview, citing poor health, Burke said. Boren, who underwent heart surgery two years ago, suffered a minor stroke last year before stepping down.

He has two children from his first marriage and has been married to his second wife, Molly Shi Boren, for more than 40 years.

The sex abuse investigation adds to a tumultuous transition from Boren’s time at the university, during which he won widespread regard as one of the 129-year-old institution’s greatest presidents. During his 24 years at the helm, the university added dozens of new buildings, raised more than $3 billion from private donors and added an honors college and additional degree programs.

But after a new administration took over, he was suddenly accused of making the university financially unstable. His successor, James Gallogly, a retired energy industry executive chosen by a conservative-dominated board of regents, declared that he found the university was $1 billion in debt, and he quickly fired six senior administrators, including the chief financial officer.

He later forced out more after it was revealed that OU tweaked alumni donations data to improve its U.S. News & World Report college ranking.

Gallogly also scaled back several signature Boren initiatives, including tuition waivers and stipends for National Merit scholars and the university’s international studies program named in Boren’s honor.

Since then, the open rancor between the two presidents has reverberated across the state and the university’s large alumni network.

“We don’t know what to think, really,” said Alan Livingston, an OU alum and retired energy industry executive from Houston. “It bothers me very much, because I don’t like to see people that probably have the same goals for the university be on different roads.”

Boren’s political clout declined over the years as Oklahoma’s politics shifted rightward and the GOP came to hold 116 of the Legislature’s 149 seats. In 2016, he infuriated lawmakers by spearheading an unsuccessful 1-cent sales tax initiative for education funding as the Legislature cut higher education appropriations by 16 percent.

“Behind closed doors, it was a total joke in a lot of ways how inefficient higher education had become, but they still had this huge pull on the Legislature,” said former state Rep. Jason Murphey, a Republican critical of how the university’s lobbyists worked to influence his colleagues.

Burke, Boren’s attorney and longtime friend, said he believes much of the ill will stems from an ideological clash.

Boren’s “theories of government and education are … certainly more liberal than that of conservative leaders,” he said.

Disclosure of the sexual abuse allegation provided a reminder of a bizarre episode from Boren’s earlier political career. During his campaign for Senate in 1978, an obscure fringe candidate named Anthony Points publicly accused Boren of being gay. Boren responded with a news conference at the state Capitol where he swore on a family Bible that he was not gay or bisexual.

“I further swear that I have never engaged in any homosexual or bisexual activities, nor do I approve of or condone them,” Boren said at the time.

Boren went on to win the Senate seat. His son, Dan Boren, also served three terms in the U.S. House and was the last Democratic congressman from Oklahoma until Kendra Horn’s upset win last year.

At the university, many now wonder about Boren’s legacy.

Boren “was very much loved by the community,” sophomore Taylor Putman said, “especially by the students,” who appreciated his ambition for the university and flocked to the political science classes he taught.

However, amid the waves of layoffs, “I’d say there’s kind of a demoralized, uncertain, nervous atmosphere on campus,” said Rick Tepker, a longtime professor at OU’s College of Law. “I think there’s a growing awareness that Boren left us in a financial mess, and that makes people nervous.”

DOUGLAS COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Friday shooting in Lawrence that sent two teenagers to the hospital.

Just after 4p.m. police were dispatched to 2700 West 27th Street, Holcom Park Recreation Center in Lawrence in response to a reported shooting, according to a media release.

EMS transported two male victims, ages 16 and 18, from the scene to area hospitals. The 18-year-old victim was reported in critical condition with potentially life-threatening injuries, and the 16-year-old victim in serious condition.

Witnesses at the scene gave officers a description of a possible suspect vehicle. Police located a vehicle matching the witness description shortly afterward and two persons in the vehicle were detained for questioning and then police arrested 17-year-old  Benson J. Edwards Jr. and 17 year-old  Sahavione K. Caraway both of Topeka.   Both were booked into the Juvenile Detention Center on aggravated robbery charges.  Both victims remain hospitalized Saturday, according to police.

By JIM MCLEAN

Grievances generated by policy and personality clashes in a southeast Kansas community have spilled onto the statewide stage in the battle over Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s nominee to head the state Department of Commerce.

David Toland often found himself at odds with Virginia Crossland-Macha when he was the CEO of Thrive Allen County, a community health-improvement and economic development organization based in Iola.

The intensity of the battle has rattled many in the town of approximately 6,000, said John McCrae, a former mayor and current president of Iola Industries, a business development group.

“They’re kind of stunned that Virginia is leading the charge against the hometown boy who has done so much and so well,” McRae said.

They’re also stunned, McRae said, that abortion has now become an issue in the confirmation fight that was already complicated by Toland’s flippant jibes at prominent Republicans.

On Monday, Kansans for Life, the state’s most powerful anti-abortion organization, charged in a letter to senators that Toland was unfit for the commerce post because of his “ties” to the late Wichita abortion provider George Tiller.

“It is unconscionable that anyone wishing to sit in the governor’s Cabinet would be part of honoring the legacy of an individual who took so many innocent lives,” KFL said in the letter.

The connection consists of two small grants Thrive Allen County obtained from a memorial fund established after Tiller’s murder in 2009. Neither paid for abortion services.

The first, a $9,380 award received in 2015, went mainly to fund a campaign to reduce the smoking rate among pregnant women in Allen County. The grant application pegged that rate at the time at “an astounding 26.1 percent.”

The second was a $10,000 grant awarded in 2018 that Thrive immediately transferred to the SEK Multi-County Health Department based in Iola.

“It arrived one day and exited the next,” said Lisse Regehr, Thrive’s incoming CEO.

The money funded a health department program to curb the incidence of premature and low-birth-weight babies.

She said that using those grants to the organization to connect Toland to abortion politics shows that Crossland-Macha and Republican legislative leaders are “desperate” to “take him down.”

“It’s a personal vendetta,” she said. “It’s despicable.”

Crossland-Macha didn’t return multiple calls or texts seeking comment. But she said in a recent email to McRae, a longtime friend, that she opposes Toland’s politics and his attempts to punish her and other Iola business owners who spoke out against Thrive initiatives.

Thrive’s successful campaign to raise the legal age for purchasing tobacco products in the city from 18 to 21 was among the examples of recrimination cited by Crossland-Macha in the letter. She said the truck stop that she and her husband, Larry, own lost $100,000 in sales during the first month of the new policy.

“This was my punishment from David,” Crossland-Macha wrote. “What a great way to silence … a critic.”

At one point, a harassment campaign directed at Toland prompted him to call the Iola police. They questioned a handful of people who Toland suspected were producing and distributing leaflets attacking him and his family. The investigation didn’t result in any charges but it did stop the harassment, according to the report.

McRae, a lifelong Republican who served 12 years as mayor, said he believes most Iola residents who know something about the battle are backing Toland because his of work to transform the community. Under his leadership, McRae said, Thrive facilitated public-private partnerships to develop a new apartment complex, recruit a new grocery store and build miles of hiking and biking trails.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation noticed and awarded Allen County its Culture of Health Prize in 2017.

“It’s been absolutely remarkable,” McRae said.

Crossland-Macha has a different view.

“Mr. Toland’s version of economic development has displaced local small businesses and jobs in Iola,” she told The Topeka Capital-Journal.

Crossland-Macha and various companies under the Crossland Construction umbrella contributed $52,000 to the political action committee of the Kansas Chamber shortly after Kelly was elected governor. The Chamber mostly backs Republican candidates.

McRae said politics are at the root of the battle over Toland’s nomination.

“David is an incredibly talented young man,” he said. “And I think he’s probably seen as a future legislator, a future governor and part of the motivation is to cut him off at the ankles.”

In addition, McRae said he believes GOP leaders are “trying to slap Governor Kelly in the face.”

“As a Kansan who supports whoever our governor is, I’m sick of it,” he said.

Some of Toland’s problems with Republicans also come down to political missteps. In a 2018 social media post intended to draw attention to a sleep study, Toland joked that former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and sitting GOP Sen. Caryn Tyson kept him up at night.

“He said I’m one of his biggest nightmares,” Tyson said in an interview, “so it was a personal attack.”

Even so, Tyson said, other factors will determine her vote on whether to confirm Toland to Kelly’s cabinet.

“It would be nice to have some representation from southeast Kansas,” she said, emphasizing that she hasn’t yet made a decision.

Sen. Dennis Pyle, a Republican from Hiawatha, said if the vote had occurred Monday, he would have voted for Toland’s confirmation. Then came objections from anti-abortion activists.

“Now,” Pyle said, “I don’t think I can.”

Meanwhile, Kelly’s office orchestrated letters of support for Toland from across the state.

In a joint letter, the directors of the chambers of commerce in Manhattan, Emporia, Topeka and Lawrence said Toland’s experience in both urban and rural settings “make him the ideal candidate to take Kansas’ business development to the next level.”

Before returning to his native Iola to take the helm at Thrive Allen County in 2008, Toland directed planning for the mayor of Washington, D.C., and later headed development and planning for a real estate firm that specialized in transforming blighted areas of the city.

By all accounts, the vote on his confirmation, expected next Monday, will be close.

“Very close,” Tyson said.

Jim McLean is the senior correspondent for the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.