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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2014
PAGE 9A
GOVERNMENT
Rural lawmakers struggle to make themselves heard
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MINNEAPOLIS — They're an endangered species in many state legislatures as more Americans move to urban centers or suburban cities: the rural lawmaker who knows what it's like to care for a herd, plant a crop or drive on gravel roads.
Indiana Rep. Bill Friend, a pork producer, said it's challenging to explain modern farming to colleagues who no longer have personal connections with agriculture. He calls it an annual educational project, as he knows of only one other state legislator who makes his living primarily from farming.
"They're one, two, three generations removed from food production and agriculture. It's kind of a foreign topic to them," said Friend, the Republican majority floor leader in the Indiana House.
Lawmakers and political experts say the dwindling numbers of farmers, ranchers and others who make their living off the land affects not just agricultural policy but other rural concerns - highways, health care, schools and high-speed Internet access. Urban and suburban lawmakers might be sympathetic,but they're often unfamiliar with particular concerns.
One Colorado legislator, a rancher, has even gone so far as to suggest each of his state's 64 counties have a single House seat instead of awarding representation according to population.
In ag-centric Nebraska, more than half of the legislators now come from the Omaha and Lincoln areas. Similarly, South Dakota's legislators are bunched near Sioux Falls or
Rapid City — only 11 of South Dakota's 105 legislators as of last year were involved in agribusiness; in 1987, the figure was nearly three times higher. It was once the opposite.
It was since the approval Rural interests had outsized influence in state capitals back when districts were often based on geography rather than population, said Tim Storey, a national fellow with the National Conference of State Legislatures. That changed when a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the 1960s said legislative districts must have roughly equal populations to ensure the principle of
"That just makes it more difficult for the rural voice to be heard."
one person, one vote
DOUG FARQUHAR Conference program director
"That just makes it more difficult for the rural voice to be heard. It doesn't mean it can't be heard. It's just more challenging," according to Doug Farquhar, the conference's program director for agriculture and rural development.
Colorado state Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg's radical idea of one representative per county comes out of his frustrations over not being heard - he is the only rural voice in the House. Currently, the state legislature's votes are concentrated in the greater Denver and Colorado Springs areas.
He concedes the idea is constitutionally dubious, and follows a mostly symbolic ballot initiative in 11 rural Colorado counties last year to secede
and form a 51st state amid disagreements over gun control, renewable energy mandates and other issues.
"I think it is an argument worth having," said Sonnemberg. "But I have no illusions this would ever go into effect."
In Minnesota, Rep. Rod Hamilton has long argued that rural concerns get neglected in St. Paul, where the number of farmers in the House stands at six down from 14 as recently as 1995.
minnesota was the nation's top soybean producer in 2013, and ranks No. 8 in the U.S. for number of farms, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Census of Agriculture report release this week. But Democrat John Sullivan is the only active farmer in the Illinois Senate, with 200 acres of grain and a few cows.
Hamilton, a Republican and pork producer, said he plans to work with other rural lawmakers from both parties in both chambers this session to protect shared interests against a leadership that's mostly from the Twin Cities area.
Sullivan, an assistant majority leader, lamented that the Senate agriculture committee's chairman and other members don't have agricultural backgrounds. He expects a struggle to make the farming opinion heard as the chairman pushes legislation to require labeling of foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients.
"It just makes it more difficult to explain and talk to my colleagues when they're only hearing one side of it from opponents of GMO crops," Sullivan said.
STATE
"You don't need that many votes to make an impact," he said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Citizenship bill worries Kansas school district
GARDEN CITY - A Kansas lawmaker's proposal to track the citizenship status of public schoolchildren has raised alarm in one of the state's most diverse communities, where district administrators worry that even raising the question with parents and students would damage the welcoming environment they have tried to create.
Republican Rep. Allan Rothlisberg and officials of the Garden City district agree that under a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, all students are entitled to a public education regardless of their citizenship status or that of their parents. But Rothlisberg, of Grandview Plaza, introduced his bill with
Rothlisberg's bill would require every child who enrolls in a public school for the first time to present proof of lawful presence, such as a Social Security card, birth certificate or other document. Districts would submit annual reports to the state on the total number of children they enrolled who failed to provide such proof.
"What I'm trying to get across here is where our tax money is being diverted to," Rothlisberg told The Garden City Telegram. "It's not going to our children or grandchildren."
the goal of calculating how much Kansas is spending to educate children who are in the U.S. without legal permission.
No child would be identified
An estimated 20 percent of Garden City's nearly 27,000 residents were foreign-born as of 2012, compared to 6.5 percent for Kansas, according to census data. The Census also estimates that a language other than English is spoken in 40 percent of Garden City homes, compared to 11 percent of all homes statewide.
in the annual reports, but Garden City superintendent Rick Atha said merely asking about a student's citizenship status would imperil the trusting relationship the district has tried to build with all families.
"To do what I interpret this bill is asking school districts to do, we're creating an uncomfortable environment for that child to go to school," Atha said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Colorado Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg talks with a colleague before an agriculture committee meeting in Denver. Sonnenberg, a rancher who's the only farmer in the Colorado House, plans to push a radical idea this session.