University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, March 4. 1987
9
House considers education bill
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — The House yesterday tentatively approved a bill overhauling governance of higher education in the state, which includes transferring supervision of Kansas' 19 community colleges and Washburn University from the Board of Education to the Board of Regents.
On a vote of 62-55, the House advanced the measure to final vote today after $1\frac{1}{2}$ hours of debate. It will take 63 votes on final roll call to send the bill to the Senate. Eight representatives did not vote when it won first-round endorsement.
Speaker Jim Braden, R-Clay Center, main author of the compromise plan on higher education governance, urged the House to support the bill, saying that it was time for a change.
"Do we want to continue a slide toward medicority in higher education in our state?" Braden said. "If we do, I think that's what is in store for us."
In a time of tight financial conditions, the state no longer can afford the luxury of duplication of courses and services among its institutions of education, and central governance by one board is the answer. Braden said.
Regents would have two committees, one to handle matters pertaining to the universities and the other to handle matters relating to the community colleges and Washburn.
It also calls for the state Board of Education to name a strong state commissioner of education, with approval by the Board of Regents.
Under the bill, the Board of
Opponents centered their arguments on two things, potential loss of local control for the community colleges and eventual admission of Washburn into the state Regents system. Washburn is one of only two municipally funded universities in the United States. It receives the
same state credit-hour aid as the community colleges, but is also supported by a local property tax in Topeka.
Braden and other House leaders called the opponents' arguments narrowly focused and provincial.
Leading the opposition was state Rep. Ron Fox, R-Prairie Village. He said that officials of Johnson County Community College, the state's fourth largest post-secondary institution with about 8,600 students, were concerned that moving the colleges to Regents supervision could mean loss of community-based services and erosion of state funding.
The biggest losses were in the trade area, where 7,000 positions were lost, government, which dropped 4,400 positions and in the agricultural sector where 3,400 slots were vacated.
TOPEKA - Kansas' unemployment rate jumped from 5.9 percent in December to 6.4 percent in January because of seasonal job losses tied to construction, trade, farming and government, an official said yesterday.
"Government losses took place mostly at state and local schools and affected mostly part-time workers," said Shelby Smith, acting secretary of human resources.
"The losses in the services industry reflected losses in private schools and amusement, hotels, motels and personal services.
In January, 1,337,595 Kansans were employed and 78,046 were out of work. A year ago, the number of Kansans gainfully employed stood at 1,130,049 while 70,087 were unemployed, for a rate of 5.8 percent.
Smith said the increases in unemployment during January were not a surprise.
In Lawrence, the jobless rate stood at 4.4 percent, up from 3.6 percent in December, mainly because of losses in government, farming, services, finance, insurance, real estate and trade losses.
The Associated Press
Seasonal jobs lower Kansas jobless rate
Bill seeks to insure safe grain
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — The state should help make a farmer's grain in an elevator as safe as his money in a bank, an aide to Attorney General Robert Stephan and a lobbyist for the Kansas Farm Bureau told lawmakers yesterday.
Neil Woerman, Stephan's chief of staff, and Bill Fuller, the bureau lobbyist, urged the House Agriculture and Small Business Committee to endorse a bill that would create a $10 million "grain security producers fund."
However, Joe Lieber, a lobbyist for the Kansas Cooperative Council, objected to the bill. He said grain producers would pay their tax directly and the elevator's tax indirectly through higher rates.
Under the measure, farmers would pay two-tenths of a cent on each bushel of grain they store in an elevator, and the elevator operators would pay one-tenth of a cent on each bushel. The estimated revenues of $2 million a year would go into the fund, until it reached $10 million.
Interest earned on the money in the fund would be used to reimburse farmers for losses they could suffer if a grain elevator went bankrupt. Fuller cited statistics showing that 11 elevators in Kansas had gone bankrupt since 1982, compared to nine for the previous 15 years.
"Grain producers in Kansas are facing record losses from grain elevators and grain brokerage firms filing bankruptcy," Fuller said.
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